The Wrong Ninja at the Wrong Time
by BellaBlatevi
Summary: What if Sasuke had never gotten the curse mark?What if Sakura had a pure moment of genious that saved him from that fate?I decided to change things around so it had a different ending because I wanted to see how he would turn out if that hadn't happened. It's only rated M now because of chapter 18, other than that it is level K-T
1. Chapter 1: Trading Places

Chapter 1: Trading Places

Sakura and Sasuke had just escaped from the dangerous grass ninja and had hidden about 20 kilometers away on a huge moss covered oak tree. They were both panting, both out of exhaustion and fear.

"Sasuke, I think that grass ninja is just targeting you," said Sakura.

"I know Sakura, I know," replied an irritated Sasuke. "We need a plan Sakura, and fast. That grass ninja is probably tracking us right now and we don't have much time, plus Naruto's still missing."

They thought in silence for a minute. Then Sakura looked at Sasuke, knowing that what she was about to suggest was a dangerous idea and would probably make Sasuke angry.

"What is it Sakura? Did you come up with a plan?" asked Sasuke after he saw Sakura staring at him.

"Well yes, but its probably dangerous."

"Sakura, whatever it is will have to work."

"Well… Okay Sasuke," and Sakura leaned over to whisper her plan in Sasuke's ear, so that no prying ears could it.

"Sakura not only is that plan dangerous but it might not even work," said a frustrated Sasuke.

"But Sasuke, you're our squad's best fighter! We can't afford to have you go down with Naruto still missing! This plan has to work or else you might be able to pass let alone survive and I couldn't live with myself knowing I could have done something to stop that from happening." Tears had started coming to Sakura's eyes and Sasuke could tell she was determined for this plan to go underway.

Giving up Sasuke said, "Fine but lets move, we've stayed put too long."

So they got up and ran about 30 kilometers away from their current hiding spot.

**To Where Naruto Is**

"Let me out you slimy snake! I'm not dinner!"

A giant snake was lying down with a huge lump in its middle, showing signs of digesting Naruto Uzumaki.

"Fine if you won't let me out, I'll force my way out! SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!"

The lump in the serpent grew until it burst open with at least a dozen Narutos jumping out of it. A slime covered Naruto released the jutsu and started running back to his teammates. "Hang on guys! I'm comin'!"

**Sasuke and Sakura**

"Okay lets rest here Sakura, I think we're far enough away." They rested on huge limb of a giant tree about 30 kilometers away from their last hiding place.

"We need stay silent now Sakura and listen to anyone who approaches."

Sakura nodded in understanding. They were quiet for minutes until Sakura noticed something and tried to speak but Sasuke covered her mouth.

"I said we need to stay silent Sakura," whispered Sasuke. But Sakura didn't listen, she moved Sasuke's hand off her mouth and shouted, "Sasuke watch out!" Sasuke looked behind them and saw that a giant serpent was about to attack. Both ninjas jumped out of harms way as the serpent slammed its upper body on the spot they were just resting on.

_"How in the world did I miss that? I must be really losing it!" _Thought Sasuke to himself as he frowned and jumped about 5 yards away but the serpent was already striking for his second attack on Sasuke.

"No! Stay away!" yelled Sasuke as he threw his shuriken and kunai desperately at the giant serpent. The serpent fell against a tree 2 yards away and died. Sakura had moved several yards away and what happened next surprised both ninjas. The skin on the back of the serpent had cracked and a figure slowly rose up. The grass ninja had hidden in the serpent. She jumped and landed 3 yards away from Sasuke on the tree he was on.

"You are strong Sasuke and your resilience is impressive but…" she stopped her sentence and had started to stretch her body around the huge tree limb like a snake and stopped a yard in front of a fear stricken Sasuke. "It's still not enough!" She was about to strike when shuriken had landed an inch from her face. She looked up in the direction of the attack.

"Looks like I got here just in time you guys!" shouted Naruto who was at least 10 yards away from them.

"It seems you escaped my snake," said the grass ninja as she uncoiled and stood upright to stare at Naruto. Naruto stared back and thought to himself, _"So that wasn't a random snake attack! This weirdo sent it!"_

"Naruto run and get out of here! This ninja is dangerous!"

"What are you talking about Sasuke! I'm not goin' anywhere!"

The grass ninja was about to attack again when Sasuke pulled out the heaven scroll and said, "This is what you want right? Then take it and go." Sasuke tossed the scroll but, with incredible speed, Naruto grabbed the scroll and landed between the two ninja as he put the scroll in his tool bag.

"What're you doing you idiot? Are you tryin—" but Sasuke never finished his sentence because just then Naruto kneed Sasuke in the stomach and sent him flying against the tree trunk.

"Naruto why the hell did you do that to Sasuke? He's trying to save us you idiot!" shouted Sakura.

"Shut up! I may not know the password but that is not the Sasuke that I know! He would never give up so easily! So if he won't fight to protect this team then I will Sakura!" Naruto turned around to face the grass ninja to see that she had rolled up her left sleeve and saw she had markings on it.

He was about to attack when she bit her thumb and rubbed it across her tattooed arm, revealing a line of blood and then she said, "Summoning Jutsu!" Out of a huge cloud of smoke appeared another giant serpent that immediately went for Naruto who went flying into another tree.

"My serpent friend here likes to play with his food, so please entertain him," said the grass ninja, as the snake went in for another attack, Naruto turned to face it but he looked different. His eyes had turned red with slits for pupils, his nails had turned to claws, his hair had grown a bit longer and was shaggier, and his teeth had grown to long fangs. Naruto raised his fist and started pounding on the serpents head.

The snake fell a bit and turned to attack Sasuke instead. Sasuke just stood there stricken with fear and the snake had almost reached him but Naruto reached Sasuke first and stopped the giant serpent with one hand holding it back and the other shoving his kunai into its mouth.

"What's the matter kid? Scared, you chicken!" shouted Naruto at Sasuke who could only stare at the changed Naruto in front of him. Out of nowhere a long pink tongue wrapped itself around Naruto and pulled him up to the grass ninja. "Gross! You better let me go before I rip your tongue out of your head!" screamed Naruto as he struggled to free himself from the enemy ninja's holding.

"_Amazing, so this is what has become of the child who had the nine tailed fox sealed in him."_ The grass ninja looked at Naruto's stomach and saw some writing on it. _"So this is the seal the 4__th__ Hokage used on the child. I had better seal it before this child grows to be troublesome to my plans."_ The enemy ninja raised his hand and 5 purple things of chakra appeared on her fingertips. She pulled her hand back and shouted "5 pronged seal!" and shoved her hand right on the seal that contained the 9 tailed fox.

Naruto shouted out with pain as Sakura shouted out his name but he couldn't respond as he fell into unconsciousness. The ninja tossed Naruto aside and he started to fall to the ground. _"There's no way he'll survive that fall!" _thought Sakura before she tossed a kunai that caught Naruto and attached firmly to the adjacent tree to her.

"Say what you want about Naruto! That he's a loser or that he's too hyper! But at least he's doing something Sasuke! At least he wasn't afraid to fight for his team!" shouted Sakura. Sasuke looked at Sakura then Naruto and realized that she was right this wasn't like him. He turned towards the grass ninja and drew his kunai.

"Oh are you ready to fight now Sasuke Uchiha? Lets see how strong you are!" and she ran toward Sasuke to attack him. Sasuke moved back a step and raised his kunai to do battle with her own kunai. She ended up winning that battle and Sasuke jumped back and ran through hand signs and shouted, "Firestyle! Fireball jutsu!" the engulfed the grass ninja who appeared to be beaten but as the flames died away it turned the enemy ninja had used the substitution jutsu. The ninja appeared behind Sasuke and sent him flying with a kick to the gut.

Sasuke was sprawled out across a giant tree limb. The grass ninja appeared in front of him and said, with disappointment in her voice, "Really Sasuke? Is that all the strength you have?" Sasuke stayed silent and the enemy ninja was about to make another move when something exploded. Sasuke had put small bombs on the ninja and as she went down Sasuke got up and used some wire to firmly attach the enemy ninja to the tree then performed another Firestyle jutsu that ran along the wire. The ninja looked burnt to a crisp but something was wrong.

The grass ninja's face was peeling, revealing a snake like eye with purple eye shadow outlining the top. The grass ninja broke the wire binding her and walked forward a bit. "You are indeed strong Sasuke, I'm going to take my leave now but before I do, I have a parting gift for you." The grass ninja's head extended until her mouth had reached Sasuke's neck and had fangs protruding into his neck. After she released him a mark appeared on his neck and Sasuke fell down in unimaginable pain screaming and Sakura rushed to his side.

"Who are you and what do you want with Sasuke?" screamed Sakura.

"My name is Orochimaru, and soon Sasuke will come searching for power and come to me and in exchange he'll give me his obedience and his body. In the meantime make sure they don't stop the Chunin exams, little girl." And with those last words he disappeared with laughing manically. After he left Sasuke and Sakura became covered in smoke and when it disappeared Sakura was screaming in pain while Sasuke had a worried face.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Anger, Pain, and a Strange Power

Sakura was screaming in pain while Sasuke tried to help her but with no success. Finally the pin became too much for Sakura and she collapsed in his arms and that's when he saw something. There was a mark on her upper shoulder that looked like 3 commas circling each other. Sasuke picked her up in one arm and jumped to the tree Naruto was on.

"This is your fault you loser. If you had let me give that freak the scroll, we might not be in this fix," he said to an unconscious Naruto and then he thought, _"And Sakura might not be in so much pain right now."_ He detached Naruto from the tree and jumped to the adjacent tree with his teammates under his arms and then he thought, _"That's not all true though. If I hadn't been so focused on surviving, Sakura might not have been put in this much pain."_

**Flashback**

Sakura leaned toward Sasuke and whispered into his ear, "Ok, this is my plan. I think we should transform into each other. When that grass ninja comes for us, I'll cast a genjutsu that seems like I'm actually attacking with your jutsu but you'll be the one actually attacking to make it look convincing, so she doesn't get suspicious of us."

Sasuke's eyes widened and he was about to argue with the idea but Sakura cut him off and said, "I know it's dangerous, but you can't you can't get hurt! We need your strength and we might not survive without you Sasuke, so please just do it. It's for the good of us and the exam, think of it as a mission." Sakura looked at Sasuke with pleading eyes and he gave in and said, "Fine Sakura."

**End of Flashback**

"I shouldn't have gone along with her plan and I should've just fought him by myself." Sasuke said out loud. Sasuke gripped his teammates firmly, and then jumped from tree to tree to find a good hiding place until both his teammates had recovered.

**Approximately 10 minutes later**

Sasuke was now keeping watch over his teammates. Naruto was still unconscious and Sakura was running a high fever. Sasuke had a great hideout, it was I huge hollow inside an oak tree. He had placed Naruto and Sakura in the very back to take care of them while not being easily spotted by enemy shinobi.

Suddenly he heard a sound behind him, outside the tree. Then a voice spoke, "Come on out Sasuke we know you're in there." Sasuke pulled out his kunai and walked toward the hollows entrance. "Who are you and what do you want?" Sasuke asked.

"My name is Dosu, the girl's name is Kain, and the other guy is Zaku. We're here to carry out a mission given to us by our leader Orochimaru."

Sasuke's eyes widened a bit but he replied, "I asked who you are and what you wanted, not your whole life story."

"Fine, let's put it simply. We're here to kill you Sasuke Uchiha," Zaku replied. Sasuke looked at them taking them in and said, "Fine, bring it!" and he activated his Sharingan and started going through hand signs. Dosu tried to make the first move but Sasuke was too fast, and Sasuke shouted, "Firestyle! Phoenix Flower Jutsu!" and 5 medium sized flames went flying at Dosu.

Dosu stopped in his tracks and Zaku went in front of him and used some type of sound jutsu to blow the flames out. Sasuke grinned as he watched Zaku's face turn to that of surprise then to horror as 5 kunai came flying at him and implanted themselves in his chest. Kain made a move to help her teammates but Sasuke cut a wire next to his foot that activated a trap he had set. A huge limb of a tree came flying out of nowhere and hit Kain in the side and sent her flying into another tree 10 yards away, and she fell to the ground unconscious.

He looked at Dosu and said, "2 down and 1 to go. If you leave your scroll behind now and leave I'll let you all live but if not… be prepared to die!" Sasuke waited for Dosu's reply but all he heard was this high pitched sound that kept increasing until he covered his ears in pain.

Dosu walked up to Sasuke and said, "You see this gadget on my arm? Well it amplifies vibrations, making any sound a lethal weapon for me to use. As for the answer to your question Sasuke…" he cut his sentence off to pick Sasuke by his shirt and then threw him against a tree and finished his sentence by saying, "My answer is no!" He began to move toward Sasuke when he felt something dangerous to his far left.

He looked into the tree hollow and saw pink chakra rising up from a girl's body and said, "What the…" Dosu was lost for words. He looked towards Sasuke and saw that he got back up and was walking towards him slowly.

"I'm guessing you want to know what's up with her. Well about an hour ago a guy named Orochimaru attacked us and targeted me. But Sakura transformed into me and oddly enough it fooled him and instead of attacking me, he was attacking Sakura and at the end he bit her and now she has this weird mark on her neck. You know anything about that? Because if you do, I want you to tell me." Sasuke had now reached Dosu and was about to attack when Dosu used his gadget again.

This time Sasuke went flying into the hollow and he was about to get up when Sakura rose, with pink chakra surrounding her. She walked out into the light, and Sasuke saw that the right side of her body was covered in weird marks. Dosu started to back away from her and then she said, "How dare you… hurt my SASUKE!" and with that Sakura punched Dosu's sound gadget and then she punched his stomach and he went flying 15 yards away into a huge tree.

Sakura started walking toward Dosu but he yelled, "WAIT! Here I'll leave and give you the scroll! Just let me take my team and leave." Sakura stopped when he put his earth scroll on the ground. Dosu grabbed Kain and Zaku and ran out of sight. Sakura turned around to Sasuke after getting the scroll. She walked toward him and knelt on the ground before him and asked, "Sasuke are you ok? Did he hurt you badly?"

Sasuke looked at Sakura and said, "Yeah I'm fine Sakura but are you ok? I'm sorry for how much pain you were in; it's my fault for agreeing to your plan." Sakura smiled at Sasuke and said, "I'm fine Sasuke. I feel better than I have in a long time and I feel like I be of some use to the team now. Because of this new power I was able to help you out in a fight and you weren't hurt by Orochimaru."

Sasuke just looked at her and said, "I'm glad Sakura." He looked toward Naruto and said, "He'll be waking up soon. Let's take him to the tower and finish this exam."

Sakura looked at Sasuke and said,"Ok." So Sasuke and Sakura picked up Naruto and ran to the tower.

**An hour later**

Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura were now inside the tower. Naruto had woken up and asked a million questions and Sasuke explained almost everything except for Sakura's mark to him. Now they had taken the scrolls out and opened them. They saw smoke coming off of them and Sasuke yelled, "Drop them!" And when they did someone appeared and when the smoke cleared they saw their old teacher, Iruka-sensei.

"Hey guys."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Chunin Preliminary Matches – Part 1

"Hey guys."

Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto were looking at Iruka-sensei in confusion. Naruto was the first one to speak, "Iruka-sensei what're you doing here?" Iruka-sensei looked at Naruto, smiled and said, "I'm here to congratulate you guys on passing the 2nd exam."

Naruto and the rest of his team were speechless but then Naruto said, "We passed? We passed! Yeah we're totally gonna win this guys!" Naruto jumped in the air with joy as Sakura and Sasuke just smiled.

"You guys did much better than I thought you would. You finished the exam in just 2 days and that is something to be very proud of," Iruka-sensei said. Sasuke looked at he scrolls on the ground and then back up to ask Iruka-sensei,

"So what would've happened if we had opened the scrolls during the exam?"

Iruka-sensei looked at Sasuke with a very serious look and said, "I would have been forced to knock you out with a strong genjutsu that would've had you guys out until the end of the exam. This exam's purpose was to see how well you would do if you had a hard mission where you were sent to obtain a specific item and then test your integrity after you obtained that said item."

"What are you talking about Iruka-sensei?" asked a confused Naruto.

"Ok I make it simple for you Naruto. It was to test your endurance skills and I must say you guys did extremely well and I'm proud of you all," replied Iruka-sensei.

Sakura clutched her right shoulder in pain and asked with a somewhat steady, "What do we do now? We have 3 days to kill, are we supposed to stay in this tower?"

"Yes Sakura, we have set up rooms you can sleep in and also a medical center where you can recover from your injuries while you wait for the exam to end," replied Iruka-sensei.

"Iruka-sensei, can we go out to get like ramen? Because I'm starving!" asked Naruto. Iruka-sensei laughed before answering,

"You know what Naruto, how about this, since you guys did so well I'll treat you guys to some Ichiraku Ramen for lunch tomorrow. Of course this is after you all rest up and recover." He looked at his old students and was caught by surprised when Naruto ran up to him and hugged him, almost knocking him down, then he shouted, "Iruka-sensei your awesome! You're the best, I can't wait since I haven't really eaten anything in two days!"

"Hey come on Naruto! Get off; you're slobbering on my vest!" Iruka-sensei said as he laughed at Naruto. Sakura and Sasuke got to walk up to Iruka-sensei, and Sakura stumbled a bit while grimacing in pain from her shoulder injury.

"Sakura are you alright? You should have that mark looked at."

Sakura looked at Sasuke, smiled and said, "Its okay, I'm fine I just need some rest." Sasuke looked worried but dropped the subject the subject and looked at Iruka-sensei and said,

"Iruka-sensei, can you show us to our rooms? Sakura and I are a bit tired."

Iruka-sensei also showed a worried look at Sakura and said, "Sure come right this way." He walked out of the room into the tower, went up one flight of stairs, and walked down the first hallway on right. He stopped outside a door that was 3 down from the entrance to the hallway.

"This is where we put the Genin who have passed the 2nd exam before the time limit has ended. Others will be rooming along this hall as well so be respectful but on guard as well. You all can share one room, they're all big enough for at least 4 people so go on ahead and make yourselves at home."

Naruto walked into the room and saw one of the beds and jumped on it and automatically fell asleep. Before Iruka-sensei could walk off Sasuke stopped him by grabbing his arm and said, "Iruka-sensei can you do me a favor? I want you to get Kakashi-sensei and have him meet me and Sakura in the medical center? It's very important."

Sasuke looked at Sakura from the corner of his eye and Iruka-sensei followed his gaze and replied, "Of course Sasuke." And then in a lower voice he asked, "What exactly happened to you guys. Its obvious Naruto doesn't know everything but I know you know. So what happened to Sakura in the forest?"

Sasuke hesitated and then said, "A guy named Orochimaru attacked us under the disguise of a grass ninja and he bit Sakura on her shoulder and left some weird mark on her shoulder. He thought it was me, so we know he was targeting me for some reason but we don't know why. Just don't tell Kakashi, let me do the explaining it'll be much easier that way."

Iruka-sensei nodded and said, "If that's the case then I'll send for him right away Sasuke. You and Sakura can head down now." Iruka-sensei disappeared in a puff of smoke after that and Sasuke looked at Sakura who had fallen to the floor.

"Sakura! Come here I'm taking you downstairs to the medical center. We're meeting Kakashi, and no arguments you need help," Sasuke said. Sakura looked at him and was about to speak but she passed out from exhaustion and pain.

Sasuke picked her up and ran to the medical center and arrived within 10 minutes after a long search. Sakura had woken up after they had arrived and sat her down in a chair while he waited for Kakashi to show up. He arrived 10 minutes later and went straight to Sasuke and Sakura but spoke Sasuke first and said, "I'm getting you to get that curse-mark sealed. Anko told Lord Hokage about Orochimaru, she too encountered him in the forest and the Hokage wants the curse sealed up right away, so no arguments." Kakashi made a grab for Sasuke but Sasuke stepped back and said,

"There's only one problem. It wasn't me who was marked, it was Sakura."

Kakashi's eyes widened as he looked from Sasuke to Sakura and said, "How the…No this isn't the time. I'm going to take her to get the mark sealed. You just wait here because after I'm done I need you to take her to your room." Kakashi picked Sakura up in his arms and she didn't protest because she was still in pain. Sasuke sat down and waited for them to return.

**An Hour Later**

Kakashi came back with Sakura in his arms again. Her face had a more peaceful look to it than before and she didn't seem to be in anymore pain.

"She's going to be fine now. She won't wake up for a couple of days, I would say just before the exam's time limit expires. Take her up to the room so she can rest until then and don't let Naruto disturb her. After this exam I want the details on what happened so I can inform Lord Hokage."

Sasuke nodded and took Sakura from Kakashi's arms and went back to the room. When he got there he out Sakura down and then went to a bed himself and fell asleep.

**The Next Day**

Sasuke woke up and hour before Naruto did and when Naruto did wake up he asked what was wrong with Sakura and Sasuke explained the curse mark to him and said that Sakura would be alright as long as he didn't disturb while she rested. After that they spared with each other the rest of the day and the next day they trained separately. They hadn't seen anyone since they had gotten there and were glad since no one had given them any trouble. Before Sasuke went to sleep he saw Sakura stir and then became still again and he realized the pain she had gone through just for his sake and he felt gratitude towards her. He and Naruto fell asleep quickly afterwards.

**The end of the 2****nd**** exam and the Beginning of the third**

Naruto and Sasuke woke up to a still sleeping Sakura who woke up maybe an hour after them. She asked what day it was and told her it was the final day of the exam. She was surprised but understood after Sasuke told her that Kakashi had sealed her mark and it had taken a lot out of her. Naruto brought her some food which she devoured in minutes since she hadn't eaten in 3 days.

After they had all eaten they went downstairs in the room Iruka-sensei said they were supposed to meet in when the exams ended. In there they saw 6 other teams. 2 of them were the other rookie teams, 1 was a sand team, and another was the sound squad that Sasuke's team had fought, and the last 2 teams were leaf shinobi squads.

Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke went and lined up along side Ino Yamanaka's team and saw that the Hokage and several other Chunin and Jonin were standing and looking at all the teams.

"Good, now that all the teams are here we may begin. Congratulations to you all, you have passed the 2nd part of the Chunin exams. I would like to say that you all can go home for now and rest but unfortunately I can't. Because so many of you passed we have to hold preliminary matches. Something that hasn't been done in 5 years."

After the Hokage said that a bunch of Genin shouted in protest. Kiba, a Genin in Hinata Hyuuga's squad shouted out the most, "Why? What's the point?" The Hokage had everyone quiet down so he could answer,

"It's not because you all haven't earned to go on in the finals or that we don't believe in your skills. You've all proven to us your strength and capabilities. It's the fact that many Lords and rulers of the land will be coming to view you fight but they have only come to see the best of the best. We can't waste their time fights that might not interest them. So we have to hold these preliminary matches so that we can feature the best of the best to these important people. If that is all then Hayate come here."

Out of nowhere a ninja appeared and walked up in front of Lord Hokage. He looked like he hadn't slept and he seemed ill because he coughed every other minute. Then the ninja spoke, "Good evening. My name is Hayate Geko and I'll be your proctor for the preliminary matches."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Chunin Preliminary Matches – Part 2

"My name is Hayate Geko and I'll be your proctor for the preliminary matches." Hayate paused to cough and then looked back up at the 7 teams that had passed and spoke again,

"The match rules are simple. There are no rules; you fight until you die or if your opponent gives up. However, that being said, I control the match and declare when it is over. So if I decide that a match is over it's over. This is to prevent any unnecessary deaths and injuries." He looked toward a Jonin with purple spiky hair, who had an earpiece communicator. She looked at him and nodded.

"Open the panel," said Anko into the communicator. All of the Genin looked at the huge screen that had been hidden behind a panel.

"The matches will be decided at random but before we decide the first participants of the first match, is there anyone who wishes to forfeit or not continue?" Hayate looked at the Genin and stopped at one leaf team as one Genin, with grey hair and glasses on, raised his hand. Team 7 looked over at him and Naruto immediately recognized him as Kabuto, the ninja they had met before the 1st exam.

"That's it. I'm done, I can't go on." Kabuto said. Kabuto walked off and headed to the entrance but Naruto stopped him before he left.

"Why Kabuto, why are you quitting when you did so much to get here?" shouted Naruto.

"Please don't be mad Naruto. I'm just running on empty and I still haven't recovered from that time that that Sound ninja attacked me. I've been deaf in my left ear for over 5 days. I can't do anything in my current condition, I'm sorry Naruto." Kabuto smiled as he walked out.

Naruto just stood there and looked at where Kabuto had just walked out. He was like that or another minute until Hayate called their attention back to him when he coughed and then spoke, "Is that all, no one else? Alright then turn the panel on so that we can find out who the first opponents are."

Behind all the Jonin the panel screen began flashing through names faster through names than anyone's eyes could follow. They finally stopped after 2 minutes and Hayate turned to the first opponents and said,

"Sasuke Uchiha and Yoroi Akado please come to middle and everyone else please go up into the waiting area." Hayate said as Sasuke and Yoroi walked up to him. Everyone walked up to the waiting area to watch the fight.

Sasuke looked at Sakura as she walked up the stairs and cursed himself for being so weak and allowing her to get hurt because of his cowardice. He swore to himself right there and then that he would never run again, and let her get hurt because of his mistakes. He was still looking at Sakura when a hand reached out to try and grab his throat.

"Getting distracted Sasuke Uchiha? I'd stop staring at your girlfriend and pay more attention to me. After all Hayate said to start the fight," Yoroi said.

Sasuke glared at Yoroi Akado and said,"Shut up!" then he went through the hand signs to perform a Firestyle jutsu and said, "Firestyle! Phoenix Flower Jutsu!" A dozen small fire balls came flying toward Yoroi. He had dodged most of them but two had made impact, one on his arm and the other on his right knee.

Yoroi sucked in some air as he fell to the ground in pain. He put his hand on his knee but before he could get up, Sasuke came behind him and kicked him in the back and sent him sprawling across the floor 20 yards away.

"You see Yoroi; I don't have to pay attention to you because I already know the outcome of this fight. I'm going to win and you're going to lose, easy as that," said Sasuke. Yoroi had gotten up and he ran at Sasuke, engulfing his hand in a weird looking chakra.

They began fighting only having time perform their best Taijutsu. Sasuke had activated his Sharingan and realized that without it he would have lost by now because Yoroi was so fast. Sasuke had just landed a blow to Yoroi's gut when Yoroi grabbed Sasuke's shoulder and he suddenly felt weak. He looked at Yoroi and saw that he was smiling.

Sasuke fell down to the ground and asked, "What are you doing to me? Where did my chakra go?" Yoroi laughed and then answered, after moving his hand to Sasuke's head to keep him immobile,

"I'm absorbing your chakra and using it for my own use! You thought you could win easily but you're wrong. I'm far stronger than you and you can't defeat me now that I'm absorbing your chakra _kid_." Sasuke was getting angrier as each second passed until he was about to explode with rage and he shouted,

"GET OFF ME!" and he kicked Yoroi so hard into the air with his feet that some blood was spilling out of Yoroi's mouth. Sasuke went through the Firestyle hand signs again and this time he shouted, "Firestyle! Great Fireball Jutsu!" An enormous fireball engulfed Yoroi and Sasuke jumped up to him and kicked him 3 times in the chest making him slam down into the hard floor.

Yoroi was covered in minor burns and was unconscious from the blows Sasuke had given to his chest. Hayate walked up to Yoroi, looked at him then checked his pulse and pointed his hand at Sasuke and said, "Sasuke Uchiha is the winner of the 1st match."

Applause went up around the watching area and Sakura and Naruto were shouting his name with praise and Sasuke just grinned at his team. A couple of paramedic ninjas came and took Yoroi to take care of him. Sasuke walked up to greet his grinning teammates who congratulated him on his victory. Afterwards everyone looked towards the panel screen to see it was already deciding on who was next when it finally stopped a moment later.

"Will the next two opponents please come down. Shino Aburame and Zaku," announced Hayate. Shino and Zaku walked down the steps and into the middle in front of Hayate and Zaku glared at Shino.

"You may begin," announced Hayate.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Chunin Preliminary Matches – Part 3

"You may begin," announced Hayate.

Shino looked at Zaku, who had raised his hands in preparation. Zaku just glared at Shino with determination in his eyes.

"If you fight me you will never recover from your injuries. Do yourself a favor and forfeit this match."

Zaku just laughed and said, "You haven't even seen what I can do yet, and you already think you've won. You ought to shut your mouth; you just might get killed by saying things like that."

Shino just stared at him and Zaku just glowered at him and then Zaku backed up with shock and disgust at Shino. "What the heck are you, some kind of human hive?" Shino had beetles crawling out of his neck and onto his body.

"I'll say it again. Give up or you'll be handicap for life," said Shino.

Zaku grinned and said, "So what. I can just blow your bugs away with my jutsu, so your attacks are no use against me!"

Shino raised his arms and summoned his bugs to his lower arms and said, "Have it your way then," and he ran toward Zaku and began throwing punches at him, which Zaku dodged or blocked. Zaku attacked Shino with his Sound Jutsu and shouted, "Sonic Boom!" and sound streams flowed through his hands at Shino.

Shino dodged Zaku's attack and began punching at Zaku again and this time he landed a punch on Zaku's arm. Zaku glared at Shino for punching and screamed, "SONIC BOOM!" but when the attack touched Shino his body dissolved into beetles and Zaku paused confused and then froze. Shino had appeared behind him with a kunai in hand at Zaku's neck.

"Damn, it was a bug clone. When though, and how long?" asked Zaku.

Shino moved the kunai closer to Zaku's neck and said, "It was after your first sonic boom attack. I knew I wouldn't last if I was hit by one of your attacks, so I made a clone and used a transparency to blend in and wait for my chance to catch you. It's always good to have an ace in the hole."

Zaku grunted but said, "I'm not done yet. Just because you tricked me doesn't mean you've won! Don't get cocky brat!" He moved his right towards Shino's side and shouted, "Sonic Boom!"

Shino didn't move and nothing came out of Zaku's windpipes but something had happened to Zaku's arm. Holes had appeared in his arm and looked slightly burned. Zaku looked at Shino and shouted,

"My arms! What did you do to my arms?"

"I plugged up those bothersome windpipes in your arms to keep you from using your jutsu against me. You see I used my bug clone, every time he took a swing at you, or landed a hit, some of my insects landed on you and crawled down your arms and into those pipes. That's why I let you hit my clone before. I was done clogging up your pipes and just needed to wait for this opportunity."

"So when I tried to use my jutsu my arms blew up since my sound had nowhere to go huh? Your good but I'm still not done-" and with that last statement Zaku passed out from shock and pain.

Shino backed away from Zaku and turned toward the proctor and said, "In all fairness I warned him. He's done though you can call the match proctor." Hayate walked toward Zaku and checked his pulse and said,

"The winner is Shino Aburame," and called for some medical ninja to take care of Zaku.

Shino walked back up the waiting area where Kiba Inuzuka and Hinata Hyuuga congratulated on his victory but he replied saying, "Just make sure you two do the same," and turned around to the fighting area where the next opponents were being chosen. It stopped on two ninja that the 9 rookies didn't know.

"Will Temari and TenTen come down for the next match," announced Hayate.

Temari of the Sand village and TenTen of the Leaf walked down to meet Hayate in the middle.

"You may begin!" announced Hayate, but they just stood there, as they both analyzed each other. TenTen jumped back and calculated her distance from Temari. "I said begin."

"_Look at her, distancing herself from me. She's waiting for me to make the first move," _thought Temari to herself as she smiled. Finally after a few minutes had passed TenTen took a scroll out and jumped into the air and activated the scroll and a couple dozen came flying towards Temari, but when TenTen came down Temari was uninjured and now grinning.

"That's impossible! I never miss my mark!" exclaimed TenTen in shock. Temari pulled out her fan and said, "It's possible now little girl. Go on take another shot; you get two more chances before you lose."

TenTen got angry then and said, "You can't know the outcome of this battle! How do you know I won't win?"

Temari's grin got even bigger and she got an evil look in her eyes and replied, "You se this fan? You can see only one moon right now, but when you see three you'll know you've lost."

TenTen almost blew up with anger but bit her lip to calm down and closed her eyes and thought out a plan. After a minute she pulled out two scrolls that were identical and said, "I was hoping to save these for the actual matches but oh well." She jumped into the air and said, "Twin Dragon Scroll!" and two dragons made out of white wispy smoke twirled around her and followed her into the air. She opened both scrolls and with amazing speed summoned dozens of weapons at Temari, who in turn used her fan to dodge them.

After using all the weapons in the scrolls, Temari asked, "Are you done now?"

TenTen growled and said, "No I'm not!" and all of a sudden the weapons came back into the air, all supported by metal wires connected to TenTen's fingers and she threw them back at Temari who dodged them all again with her fan.

TenTen landed on the ground and looked up to see Temari standing in front of her fan. It had all three moons on it. Temari laughed and said, "I win," and disappeared with the wind along with her giant fan.

"Where'd she go?" TenTen said to herself. All of a sudden Temari was behind her and Temari shouted, "Wind Scythe Jutsu!" A cyclone of air came at TenTen and she was thrown in the air, stuck inside a vortex of air and being cut every time it touched her.

After a couple of minutes TenTen fell to the ground and Temari put her fan on her back. She walked over to TenTen and said, "You weren't really even a challenge and to think you thought you could beat me with only your weapons and no jutsu to back them up? Impossible, it was a fool's idea," and she walked off as Hayate announced that the winner was Temari.

She walked back up to her team and Kankuro said, "Good job Temari."

Temari replied, "Like I said she wasn't a challenge." While they were talking the next fight had been decided. Some girl from the Sound village and a boy who looked bored out of his mind started walking toward the middle where Hayate was.

"The fight between Kain and Shikamaru Nara may begin," Hayate announced.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Chunin Preliminary Matches Part 4

"Kin Tsuchi and Shikamaru Nara, please come down to start the next match," said Hayate.

Shikamaru and Kin walked down to Hayate, and when they arrived Hayate said,

"You may begin."

Shikamaru put his hands together to form the rat hand sign and shouted,

"Shadow Possession Jutsu!"

Shikamaru's shadow darkened and went towards Kin's own shadow. Kin jumped back and threw a few senbon at Shikamaru which he dodged. They got stuck in the wall behind Shikamaru and he noticed that they had almost invisible strings on them that led to his opponent. He stretched his shadow toward them as he threw his kunai to distract Kin. She dodged them but it was too late. Shikamaru already had his shadow in position and he started to spread it directly to her shadow.

"Ha your no challenge, all you have is that wimpy shadow jutsu, whereas I have a jutsu that actually does something. You should be feeling the effects right about now," Kin said.

Shikamaru was about to stand up when his head exploded with pain. He looked up at Kin and saw what appeared to be clones, but he knew they were hallucinations.

"The bells on my senbon cause the hallucinations you should be experiencing right now. So now that I have you immobilized it's time to finish you off," she said as she grabbed her kunai knives out of her tool bag. She was about to throw them when she froze.

Kin looked Shikamaru in the eyes with fear and said,

"Wh-what? How, you couldn't have used your jutsu I would've seen it!"

Shikamaru sighed and pointed at the invisible strings and said, "I attached my shadow to your nearly invisible threads and stretched it out toward you, just in time too." He reached into his tool bag and grabbed a shuriken and Kin did the same. He threw his at her and she threw hers at him. They both dodged but Kin's head hit the wall behind her and she fell unconscious.

"Finally, these matches are just too much work for me. Hey Proctor, can you call the match?" he asked Hayate.

Hayate looked at Kin and said Shikamaru was the winner as Shikamaru lazily climbed back up the stairs to his cheering teammates. Everyone else was looking at the screen and Naruto's team was shocked at the next two opponents.

"Ino Yamanaka and Sakura Haruno, you two are the next opponents come on down," announced Hayate.

Ino looked at Sakura with surprise in her eyes and Sakura did the same to Ino and her hand flew up to her shoulder.

"Listen Sakura, be careful and don't let the mark go out of control because you'll only be in more pain," said Sasuke.

Sakura looked at him in surprise at his caring words and she saw anguish and pain in his eyes, as if he couldn't bear for her to get hurt, and she said,

"Don't worry, I'll be careful and I'll beat Ino too."

Naruto grinned at Sakura and said, "You can do it Sakura! I know you can totally wipe the floor with that Ino freak!"

Sakura grinned and walked down. When she met Ino in the middle, Ino was still surprised by the pairing but Sakura saw determination in her eyes. Sakura took off her headband and put it on her forehead and said,

"Okay Ino, no holding back come at me with all you've got or else I won't be able to accept your loss."

Sakura smiled and Ino growled and put her own headband on her forehead and shouted,

"You're not going to win Sakura! I will never lose to YOU!"

Hayate looked at both of them and said, "You may begin!"

Ino ran at Sakura and threw a punch at her but Sakura caught it in her own hand and in turn kneed Ino in her stomach. Ino coughed and a little blood came out of her mouth and rolled down her chin. Ino looked up at Sakura with anger and tried to punch her with her other fist but Sakura knocked it aside and pushed Ino away. Ino fell on her side 10 feet away from Sakura and fear fell on her face and Sakura smiled and said,

"I told you Ino that I will win and you will lose. This is the day I step ahead of you never to fall behind. Now get ready to lose."

Sakura formed several hand signs and casted a Genjutsu on Ino. Ino's vision went blank and she sat up with a blank stare as she became lost in Sakura's Genjutsu. Sakura went up to Ino and grabbed a kunai and put it against Ino's neck.

"Wow I've never seen Sakura this brutal before. Do you know what's up with her Sasuke?" asked Naruto.

"She wants to prove to us that she's stronger and is of some use. At least that's what I think it is, also she has this weird rivalry with Ino that I don't understand," replied Sasuke.

**Ino's Mind**

"_What's going on, where am I?" thought Ino._

Ino looked around her and saw an image of her childhood when she and Sakura used to be friends.

Young Ino and Sakura were picking flowers for a class project and were talking about flower harmony and which flowers complimented them when 3 girls came up to them and started messing with Sakura. That's when Ino threw Aconite flowers into one of the girl's mouth.

Then the image changed from flower arrangements to when they became Genin and Sakura had promised never to lose to Ino and Ino had promised never to lose to Sakura.

_ "She's telling me that she's not some weakling anymore. Well I'll show her! I won't lose to her either!" shouted Ino. _

Ino formed a chakra building hand sign and shouted, "_RELEASE!"_

**Back to The Battlefield**

"Okay Ino, now you lose," said Sakura as she moved her kunai closer.

Before Sakura made contact Ino's foot kicked out towards Sakura's leg but Sakura jumped back and Ino got on her feet.

"Impressive Ino, I didn't think you would get out of that Genjutsu in time but you managed to do it. Did you like the message I sent?" asked Sakura.

Ino looked up at Sakura and said, "I got what you said Sakura but seem to have forgotten what I said the day we made Genin. I won't lose to you!"

Ino ran to Sakura with a kunai in her hand and Sakura brought another kunai out to her other hand and said,

"Haven't we already gone through this Ino? Your kunai won't affect me; I've gotten stronger since this exam started."

Ino tried to stab Sakura but Sakura deflected Ino's kunai with her own kunai. Their kunai fell to the floor and Sakura punched Ino her gut again and this time Ino fell down to the ground and started to cough up more blood. Sakura kicked Ino in her side and Ino coughed up even more blood and looked up at Sakura with blood pouring down her mouth and said,

"I guess… You have… Gotten stronger Sakura… I can't match up to you as I am right now… but I won't give up either!"

Ino tried to get up back Sakura kicked her down and then stepped on her gut and drew out more kunai and shuriken and said,

"I'm sorry Ino but I won't let you win, this match means too much to me. Now if you don't stop you're going to regret it."

Sakura pressed down even harder on Ino's gut and Ino coughed and some of her blood landed on Sakura's face. Sakura was shocked for a second and looked down at Ino with pity and sadness in her eyes and said,

"I really am sorry Ino. We used to be such good friends, and I wish it could still be that way but because of this stupid rivalry we have I don't think that'll ever happen. Proctor please call this match, in a few more seconds the pressure I'm putting on her broken ribs will be too much and she'll pass out."

Hayate looked at Ino and Sakura and was about to call the match when Ino moved and said,

"I'm not finished; I won't lose to you Sakura. I still have a special jutsu I saved just for you."

Ino moved her hands closer together but Sakura threw a kunai into both of Ino's arms and had them pinned to the ground. Ino looked at her arms and then at Sakura with fear in her eyes. Sakura looked straight into Ino's eyes and said,

"I win Ino."

Sakura put more pressure on Ino's gut and Ino coughed a few times and then passed out. Sakura stepped off Ino and checked her pulse. Then she picked up Ino and brought her to Hayate.

"Get some medics to heal her wounds. I didn't hurt her too badly with my kunai but she's still lost a lot of blood. Her arms should be fine though. This match is definitely over though," said Sakura.

Sakura dropped Ino at Hayate's feet and smiled down at Ino and said to the unconscious girl,

"Thank you Ino, because of your help in the past I have got stronger, and I was able to become a ninja. But now I've grown even stronger and I was able to surpass you. I've gone from a bud to a fully blossomed flower. Thank you for helping me get to where I am today."

Hayate looked at Ino and called the match as Sakura's victory and then had some medics take Ino away on a stretcher. Sakura walked up to Sasuke and Naruto grinning.

"Great job Sakura! You put that Ino freak in her place! Now the 3 of us can go to the finals together!" Naruto shouted.

"Great job Sakura, are you okay though? You guys did use to be friends and all right?" asked Sasuke with worry in his voice.

Sakura looked at Sasuke, smiled and said, "I'm alright Sasuke, really I am. We haven't really been friends in awhile but after this tournament I'm hoping that'll change."

Hayate coughed and everyone's attention was called back on him and he said,

"Kankuro and Misumi Tsurugu please come down. You will be the next match."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Chunin Preliminary Matches – Part 5

"Kankuro and Misumi Tsurugu, come down to start the next match," said Hayate.

The next two opponents came down to the middle. The guy with a mummy on his back and face make up was the guy they called Kankuro and the other guy who had on a mask and wire-rimmed glasses was Misumi.

"I suggest you forfeit so that they don't have to take away a dead body back to your village," said Misumi.

Kankuro just laughed and took the mummy off of his back and steadied on the ground while holding it by some kind of fur, and then he said,

"You know I was about to say the same thing except I can't promise that you won't get hurt, even after you forfeit."

Hayate looked at both of them and said, "Begin!"

Misumi ran to Kankuro with a kunai in his hand but Kankuro deflected it, and Misumi grabbed Kankuro's arm and jumped behind him and said,

"You should give up because if you don't your gonna die."

Kankuro looked up at him and said,

"Why would I give up when your not doing—"

Kankuro cut off when Misumi's arms started stretching and spreading around his body until both of his hands were positioned in the perfect place to snap his neck.

"Now if I were you, I would give up or else I'm gonna snap your neck," said Misumi.

"No way, why don't you go right ahead I dare you—"

Misumi snapped Kankuro's neck and Kankuro fell limp In his arms. Misumi checked to make sure he was dead and said,

"I told him he would die, the little idi—What the heck?"

Kankuro's head turned a full 180 degrees to reveal a wooden face, and the mummy's cloth fell to the ground as another Kankuro jumped out and said,

"I told you I wouldn't die, you see I'm a puppetmaster and now you're dead."

Misumi's eyes widened and he shouted,

"I give up! I give up!"

Kankuro laughed and said, "Too late!"  
Kankuro's puppet had began to twist Misumi's neck but Hayate stepped in and said,

"Enough! He said he gives up now release him."

Kankuro released Misumi grudgingly and walked away to Gaara and Temari. Misumi fell to the ground unconscious and Hayate called for medics immediately. One of the medics checked his pulse and said to Hayate,

"His vital signs are weak but he'll live. His neck is severely injured and he would've died if you hadn't stepped in Hayate. He'll be unconscious for awhile."

The medic turned around to another medic and said, "Hurry up! We need to take him to intense care treatment!"

The medics took him quickly away on a stretcher and Hayate looked at Kankuro questioningly and thought _"Did he really mean to kill him?"_

Kankuro glared at Hayate and said to Temari, "These fools are too worried about losing some lame Genin that has even lamer jutsu. It pisses me off that they interrupted the match, I would've liked to snap that guys neck."

Temari looked at him and said, "Calm down, you'll get your chance during the real rounds just wait until then and stick to the plan Kankuro. Don't get hot-headed over that lame excuse for a shinobi."

They all stopped talking and paid attention to the panel screen that was choosing the next opponents. Then someone shouted out of nowhere,

"YEAH! It's finally my turn!"

Everyone looked at a leaf ninja with spiky blond hair, a goofy grin, and an orange jacket.

"Naruto Uzumaki and Kiba Inuzuka please come downstairs, you are the opponents of the next match," said Hayate.

Kiba laughed and said to his dog Akamaru,

"I think we just won the lottery boy."

Kiba walked past his teammates and before he left a girl with short cut hair said, "Good luck Kiba."

While still walking he turned his head and said,

"Don't worry about me Hinata I'll be fine, it's Naruto you should be worrying about."

Naruto started walking down and Sakura said, "Good luck Naruto, don't lose to Kiba. I want us all to go to the final matches."

Naruto grinned and said, "Sure thing Sakura. Don't worry I won't lose."

Sasuke turned to Naruto and said, "Make sure you don't because out of all the people here I want to fight you the most."

Naruto paused at this and stared at Sasuke with wide eyes and nodded and Sasuke grinned and said,

"Now go and beat Kiba Naruto don't let us down."

Naruto and Kiba met down by Hayate and Hayate said,

"You may begin."

Naruto grinned at Kiba and said,

"Get ready to lose Kiba because guess what, I'm the top ninja around here."

Kiba growled and retaliated by saying,

"Shut up you loser! You think you're the top ninja? Yeah right, you couldn't even make a proper transformation while at the academy. All you said was that you would be Hokage someday, fat chance."

Then Naruto growled and Kiba grabbed Akamaru off the top of his head and put him on the ground and said,

"You ready to fight this wimp Akamaru?"

Akamaru barked in agreement and Naruto got ready to start but was taken by surprise when Kiba shouted, "Ultimate Taijutsu! Tunneling Fang!" and Kiba became a moving violent cyclone that aimed itself at Naruto. Naruto was hit right in the gut and knocked back against the wall and he fell to the ground face down.

"Ha a piece of cake. Ok Proctor you can call the match he won't be waking up for a couple days."

Back in the balconies, all of the other rookie Genin had surprised looks on their faces and Sakura shouted,

"On your feet Naruto! Don't let Kiba make yourself seem disgraceful, show him he's wrong about you!"

All was quiet and Sasuke said, "Get up you loser, show's over kick this guy's butt."

Naruto laughed and got up saying to Sasuke,

"Sorry I was hoping he'd come up to me so I could attack him guess it didn't work."

Naruto had blood running down the side of his mouth and when he looked at Kiba, Kiba got extremely angry and said, "Let's go Akamaru! Man Beast Clone! Beast Mimicry, Fang over fang!" Akamaru was covered in smoke and in his place was another Kiba while Kiba's appearance had appeared more beast-like.

They jumped into the air and attacked Naruto like Kiba had before except now from both sides and Naruto couldn't counterattack because every time he tried they threw smoke bombs at him and attacked him in the smoke. Finally Naruto got an idea and when they attacked next they stopped and when the smoke cleared there were 3 Kibas. THEN Kiba punched the Kiba to his left and said,

"Nice try but I can smell you Naruto."

But when Kiba looked at the Kiba he just punched he saw Akamaru lying on the ground and his eyes widened, the he punched the other Kiba and said,

"So it was you!"

But then that Kiba also turned into Akamaru. Kiba looked back and forth and when he tirned his back Naruto appeared and kicked him in the back and Kiba was sent flying and then Naruto shouted,

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" and 5 Narutos appeared by the real one and they all ran at Kiba before he fell. One Naruto jumped into the air off of one Naruto's back and all the others kicked Kiba in the stomach one at a time and said, "Na-Ru-To" and The Naruto above him said,

"Get ready for my new jutsu Kiba! Uzumaki Barrage!"

Naruto slammed his foot into Kiba's back and the other Naruto's punched Kiba in the gut before he landed on the ground. Kiba collapsed on the clones causing them to disappear. Naruto walked up to Kiba and grabbed a kunai just in case and said,

"I told you I wouldn't lose and as for transformations in the academy well that was the academy and this is now Kiba. I've changed, I've gotten stronger than you and I'll keep getting stronger until I reach my dream of being Hokage. That won't change either."

Kiba grunted and tried to get up but fell to the ground trembling in pain. Naruto walked away to get Akamaru and brought it to Kiba and said,

"I could've taken your dog Akamaru hostage but that would've been low and it wouldn't have been an actual win against you."

All of a sudden there was cheering and Sakura shouted,

"Way to go Naruto! You put Kiba in his place!"

Hayate looked at Naruto in approval and said,

"The winner is Naruto Uzumaki!"

Naruto screamed and wooted and as he walked back up Hinata confronted him and gave him some healing medicine and Naruto thanked her and went to stand by his team. When he looked at the screen panel he froze at the names and there was a complete silence.

"Will next opponents Neji Hyuuga and Hinata Hyuuga please come down for the next battle."

**Thanks for reading my fanfiction so far. It's the first one I've written and I know it isn't much of one but if you just think about it the little change with Sakura I made makes huge differences in the coming events. The next chapter I post will be the last Preliminary Match and I've decided how to do the final matches. Naruto vs Neji (match 1), Shikamaru vs Temari (match 2), Kankuro vs Shino (match 3), Sakura vs Dosu (match 4), and Sasuke vs Gaara. Sasuke's match will be the last match. It might be confusing when I lay it out but when you read I think you'll like it. Please keep reading my work and feel free to review I don't mind getting constructive criticism on my work so if you have any problems or any advice just let me know. Thank you ^-^**


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8 – Chunin Preliminary Matches Part 6

"Neji Hyuuga and Hinata Hyuuga, come down for the next match."

Naruto looked at Hinata, who was shocked and had a scared expression on her face. To cheer her on and encourage her Naruto said,

"Don't worry Hinata, I believe in you! Go and show that guy who's boss!"

Hinata looked at him and blushed before nodding and getting a very confident look. Both Neji and Hinata met in the middle of the battling arena and when she looked at Neji she froze in fear. Neji's eyes were full of hate and she could tell it was directed at her and her family.

Guy-sensei tensed up and Rock Lee looked at him and asked,

"What is the matter Guy-sensei?"

Guy-sensei realized that he had tensed up and said,

"Nothing is wrong Lee! I'm merely training and working on my sensory skills!" He laughed dumbly hoping his favorite student would by his incredulous lie and to his amazement he did and Lee shouted,

"Then I too will train and try to anticipate their movements!"

Guy-sensei sighed and looked back at the cousins who were about to face off and knew that this would be a tough match because of Neji's hatred for the Main branch family.

Hayate coughed and then said,

"Begin!"

"Are you ready brother?"

"Yes, sister."

Both Hyuugas took the same battle stance and started a series of attacks and the battle was so fierce that Naruto and some of the other Genin had trouble following the battle. After minutes of nonstop attacks, they stopped with Neji standing upright and with Hinata on one knee.

"You won't be able to defeat me Hinata, you are too weak and gentle. I can tell that you would rather be doing something less violent towards others, like picking flowers. You only did this so you wouldn't let down your teammates, but the moment we were chosen as opponents we both knew the outcome. I will win and you will lose."

Hinata was breathing hard and was trying to get up. She finally did and as she did so she said,

"You're wrong, I wanted to do this… huff… huff… to see if I … huff… could change!"

After saying, that she charged at Neji, who blocked it and aimed his fingers to a single point on her arm. Hinata collapsed and then sat up, she pulled up her jackets sleeve and saw several red marks and said,

"No.. This can't be!"

"It's true I've been attacking your chakra points this whole time and now you are unable to summon any chakra in your right arm and leg. If you keep this up, you'll be critically injured. Give this fight up and stop wasting our time."

All of a sudden Naruto shouted,

"DON'T LISTEN TO HIS THAT TRASH HE'S SAYING HINATA! YOU CAN DO IT! YOU JUST NEED TO BELIEVE IN YOURSELF!"

Hinata got up again and charged and this time Neji said

"Gentle fist!" and his palm instantly made contact with her gut and she doubled over and began coughing up blood.

"I told you to quit! You the pampered offspring of the head family should know when to quit! But you are too weak to even realize when that. If you keep on going your suffering will only grow so stop, because I will not be held responsible for what happens to you."

Hinata got up and while still coughing up blood said,

"You are wrong my brother… huff… huff… You are the one in true pain and I feel sorry for you…"

Neji activated his Byakugan at full power and charged but before he could even touch Hinata, Guy, Kakashi, Kurenai, and Asuma appeared in front of him and stopped his attack. Hinata fell backwards and had stopped breathing.

Kurenai went up to her and shouted for some medics. They took her to the emergency clinic immediately and Neji became very angry and said,

"Of course protect the main household again, get out of my way. This was a waste of time."

Naruto became enraged immediately and shouted,

"SHUT THE HELL UP YOU STUPID BASTARD! DON'T YOU DARE TALK DOWN TO HINATA AFTER ALL SHE DID!"

Neji Sneered and said,

"How about you make me, that is if we ever face in battle in the finals, you loser."

Naruto was about to shout when Kakashi appeared behind him and said,

"Don't Naruto, not right now anyways. You'll have your chance to face him in the finals just be patient."

Naruto pouted and looked at the screen and as the Jonin cleared the battle arena two of the final four names appeared.

"Rock Lee and Gaara your match is next so come down here to continue the preliminaries."

Rock Lee became extremely fired up and jumped down to the middle and Gaara appeared after disappearing with the sand. Rock Lee was already in his fighting stance when Hayate yelled begin. Gaara just stood there with a bored look on his face and Lee was waiting and decided since he wasn't moving that he would attack.

Lee disappeared and appeared crouching below Gaara's knee and made a roundhouse kick and Lee had thought it had made direct contact but he was wrong. Gaara hadn't even flinched and Lee's leg had actually made contact with his sand.

Lee quickly moved out of the sand and made another move but never landed a hit. He moved at top speed and made several series of kicks and punches but all he hit was sand. Lee was panting and Gaara finally spoke, saying it in a very monotonous voice,

"Really, is this it? Is this all you can do leaf ninja?"

Lee looked up at Guy-sensei who nodded and jumped up to the handsign statue and took off leg weights and dropped them. They created a humongous wall of dust and smoke and while Gaara and everyone else was focusing on the statue, Lee appeared next to Gaara and quicker than anyone but the Chunin and Jonin could follow, he made several series of punches and blows and this time they all landed on different points along Gaara's body.

Gaara had been kicked up into the air and his sand was slowly following him but Lee was too fast. He appeared above him and gave him several hard kicks to the chest and Gaara fell to the ground and had appeared to have collapsed.

Lee was panting when Hayate had walked over to Gaara and was about to call it when he noticed something and he jumped out of the way. Lee also noticed this and said,

"What in the world?"

The body that was in front of him should have been a K.O'd Gaara but instead it was a shell of sand. Behind him Lee heard a crazy chuckle and turned and saw to his amazement, Gaara and he was unscratched and laughing.

"Excellent, excellent leaf ninja. I see you are stronger than what your outward appearance makes you seem. But I too am much stronger than I seem."

Gaara's sand suddenly attacked Lee from behind and in front of him and Lee dodged the frontal attack but was struck in the back. He shouted in pain, but did not stop dodging. He was tired from running without the waits, plus he had also opened up the 1st of the 8 inner gates and he was in extreme pain.

He moved quickly away and looked up at his sensei to seek his permission for his next move and Guy-sensei gave the sign to continue and Lee nodded and suddenly chakra came pouring out of him and he said,

"2nd Gate, gate of rest open! 3rd gate, gate of life open!"

Lee suddenly started changing, he became very red and his eyes became only whites, and then he disappeared. Then he began his onslaught again and he relentlessly attacked Gaara until his sand could no longer keep up and his sand armor started to crack. Suddenly, Lee kicked Gaara so hard that he actually started bleeding something that had never happened before.

Lee noticed this and suddenly shouted,

"4th gate! Gate of Pain open! And finally the 5th gate! Gate of Death open!"

The air around Lee became very dense with chakra and he began his onslaught all over again and Gaara was punched and kicked so many times a regular person would have died by now but he wasn't a regular person.

After Lee was done he fell and collapsed and looked at his foe Gaara who had fell to the floor as well. Lee could barely move at all but somehow Gaara still had the strength to sit up and he said,

"You're very annoying you know that so I'm going to end this. SAND COFFIN!"

Sand started heading to Lee and as it did Gaara collapsed again and his sand only reached Lee's Left arm and leg. Gaara knew he wouldn't be able to do anything else so he said,

"Sand Burial!"

The building was filled with the screams of Lee as his arm and leg were crushed and no one coul stand to even look out of fear and sadness because they couldn't even imagine the pain that their comrade was going through right now.

Lee passed out and Gaara stood up looking at the ninja who had come closer than anyone to defeating him and said,

"You aren't worth finishing off." And he walked away as Guy-sensei appeared at Lee's side immediately, for he knew the battle was over but he didn't care.

"Lee! Lee open your eyes, look at me!"

Guy-sensei turned Lee over and saw his pupil had passed out and could not be woken, then he looked at his left limbs and had to hold back his tears as he called forth several medics. Lee's left limbs were completely mangled and bloody from Gaara's sand attack.

The medics that had taken Lee's body on the stretcher had been examing it and were in shock. They hadn't had a case this bad before. One of them signaled Guy-sensei to follow them to the emergency clinic, and Gaara just walked back up to his teammates who congratulated him but all he said to them was,

"Shut up."

Hayate cleared his throat and then said,

"The last two opponents of the preliminary matches, Choki Akimichi and Dosu Kinuta, come down for the final match."

Choji was shaking and Shikamaru and Ino were trying to encourage him but it wasn't working until their sensei, Asuma, said,

"Hey Choji if you win this, I'll take you out for all you can eat barbeque pork, how do you like the sound of that?"

Choji scared his teammates when he stood up and shouted,

"OH YEAH! I'M GONNA WIN THIS FOR THE FOOD! BRING IT ON MAN!"

Choji jumped down and faced Dosu and Hayate gave the word to beind the match and Choji began by shouting,

"Expansion jutsu!"

Choji became a huge inflated ball of ninja and stared rolling around and attacking Dosu but he kept dodging until Choji hit a wall. Then he said,

"Game over kid, you just trapped yourself and now you can't evade my jutsu!"

Dosu plunged his arm into Choji's inflated fat and started emitting high pitched sound waves that started attacking Choji's eardrums and then they reached his cerebellum and his jutsu broke as Choji lost his balance and he became very dizzy, until he passed out still thinking about the feast he had been promised.

Hayate looked at Choji and then announced,

"The winner is Dosu Kinuta! And that concludes the preliminary matches!"

Choji walked back up to his team and was about to cry because he thought he wasn't going to be able to have a feast but then Asuma said,

"Don't worry Choji, because you tried so hard I'll treat you to barbeque anyways okay?"

Choji cheered and then became silent as the Hokage, and The Chunin who had been observing the matches came down, along with all the other Jonin.

Lord Hokage said,

"Congratulations everyone on your splendid matches! You all did wonderful even if some of you didn't win, you have all come very far and I'm very proud to have seen that progress in action! Now that all the matches are over and done with I have another announcement. The finals will take place in one month so that you can better prepare yourselves for your opponents and so that you can rest and recuperate. Now can all the winners of the matches come down here."

Everyone who had won their match had come down in a single file line in front of all of their superiors. Anko had come up to Lord Hokage holding a box and Lord Hokage nodded and Anko said,

"Now listen up maggots! You are going to draw a single piece of paper and there is going to be a number on it! That will tell you when your match is!"

Anko went up to the line and everyone drew a piece of paper, and when that was done Ibiki came up with a clipboard and said,

"I'm going to call out the numbers in order and whoever drew the number I call will state their name, now who drew number 1?"

"Naruto Uzumaki, believe it!"

"Number 2?"

"Neji Hyuuga."

"Number 3?"

"Shikamaru Nara…"

"Number 4?"

"Temari."

"Number 5?"

"Kankuro."

"Number 6?"

"Shino Aburame."

"Number 7?"

"Sakura Haruno."

"Number 8?"

"Dosu Kinuta."

"Number 9?"

"Sasuke Uchiha."

"And that leaves Gaara. Okay so here is how the battle order will go! 1st match is Naruto vs Neji, 2nd match will be Shikamaru vs Temari, 3rd match will be Kankuro vs Shino, 4th match will be Sakura vs Dosu, and the final match will be Sasuke vs Gaara!"

Anko and Ibiki both stepped behind Lord Hokage and Lord Hokage spoke one last time and said,

"Now that the final selections have done, I wish to convey my congratulations one last time before I dismiss you all to rest and commence your training again. But before you are dismissed the date for the final exams will be June 1st and if any of you are late for your respective matches you will be disqualified. I must ask all of you to take these matches seriously, many lords and nobles will be coming to view your matches and some will wish to hire you. Your future ninja career could depend on these. That is all I have to say to you all, good luck and I will see you all in one months time, dismissed!"

** Thank you all for being patient, I'm extremely sorry I haven't updated in like forever. I've been busy with Highschool and I also sort of lost confidence in writing ths because after I reflected on this fanfic, I thought had no point but my friend helped me out and I realized it wasn't about making sense but enforcing my imagination and creativity, so I apologize again and hope you all will continue my fanfictions! Since the final matches don't start until June 1****st**** as it says in the story I won't update until then either, so as to give me time for school and for writing all of the matches, so I hope you all will continue reading. Also I plan on ending this fanfic once they reach the point for Naruto to leave to train, so this first fanfic of mine will be done in about 10 chapters. Thank you all for reading this ^_^**


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

'_The month of preparation is almost over,'_ I thought to myself.

_' I haven't seen Sasuke or heard from Naruto in the past month, they must be training really hard to get stronger, and tomorrow the finals start."_

I walked up to my room and lied down on my bed. I'd been training for the past month everyday as hard as I could but my body kept on collapsing every time I tried building up too much chakra. I had mastered many new jutsus even with that handicap and they also made up for my lack of stamina and strength.

"I'm more than prepared for this! I'm aiming for the top! CHAA!"

I pulled my bed sheets over my body and went to sleep feeling very confident.

Morning had come fast and I had run down to the stadium an hour before it would actually open and waited around with Neji, Shikamaru, and Shino. Naruto and Sasuke arrived 50 minutes before the stadium was supposed to open and after them the sand ninjas arrived. My opponent Dosu was nowhere to be seen and while Naruto had been glaring at Neji, Sasuke had been staring at me the whole time and I was getting really anxious.

Finally the doors opened and we all walked in and stood in the middle of the field where Hayate was waiting for us. About 5 minutes later we were being looked at by a stadium full of people. The Hokage made a speech to the audience members and then Hayate said,

"Congratulations everyone on making it this far in the Chunin exams. Naruto Uzumaki and Neji Hyuuga your match is first so stay down here while everyone else goes up to the observation floor."

As I walked up with everyone else I heard Naruto shout at Neji about winning his match. When I had arrived at the observation floor the match had already started and Naruto had already made his shadow clone jutsu. Neji countered it with his finger poking jutsu and after this went on for another 5 minutes Naruto finally collapsed.

I got worried because he wasn't getting up but then he did. Then all of a sudden he summoned this dangerous looking red chakra and charged at Neji and in the end won his fight and the crowd went crazy. They were so surprised at his win but a lot of us weren't, because we knew of his amazing strength and determination.

Shikamaru's match was next but he ended up surrendering after almost winning saying he was out of chakra. I turned to Sasuke to tell him how lame it was that Shikamaru resigned but he said to me first,

"Sakura when it's your turn to fight, don't continue if you know your opponent is too strong for you. Just don't… well just don't get hurt got it?"

I looked into Sasuke's eyes and saw sadness and hatred mixed into one along with something else. Protectiveness? Care? I didn't know but I nodded all the same.

"Kankuro and Shino your match is next!"

Shino was getting ready to go down but then Kankuro shouted,

"I resign!"

"Alright fine, since Dosu has yet to show up, Sakura and Shino you both win by default. Sasuke and Gaara. Your match is up please come down so we may continue the matches."

I looked at Sasuke and he grinned and said,

"I guess it's my turn. Wish me luck Sakura, I'll beat this guy and make it to the top."

Sasuke walked down and I stared at him as he walked away, and I got a bad feeling in my gut.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Sasuke walked down to the arena and the creepy sand ninja called Gaara followed him down. They met in the middle of the arena and I could feel their intensity. I couldn't tell if it was because they were building up their chakra or because they were really serious but I started getting chills and wanted to call out to Sasuke to watch out but I knew that he didn't need to be told that. If I could tell something was up from where I was standing then Sasuke would be able to feel it from just 2 feet away.

"You can do it Sasuke! Show that Sand ninja whose boss here!"

I looked at Naruto in surprise and then said," Yeah Sasuke you can do it! Show him what the Uchiha clan is made of!"

Sasuke got into his fighting stance and Gaara just started laughing to himself and then he started mumbling. What is wrong with him? Is he insane or something? Then he looked at Sasuke with a look of pure hatred and I could see that he meant to make this a fight to the death.

As I watched the fight progress I noticed something weird about the guy named Gaara's sand. It looked it had veins in it and it looked like a clawed hand. Sasuke used his fire style jutsu and Gaara covered himself in dense looking sphere of sand. Sasuke ran up the wall that was behind him and began gathering chakra in his hand and I immediately recognized what he was doing.

"No… There's no way he could've learned that jutsu.."

Naruto looked at me and asked," What do you mean Sakura? What jutsu couldn't he have learned?"

I looked at Naruto and said," Sasuke is about to do the jutsu Kakashi-sensei used against Zabuza."

Naruto's eyes widened and he said, "No.. no way he could've been taught that by Kakashi-sensei.."

"That's right Naruto he's about to perform Lightning Blade."

We both looked at Sasuke just in time to see him running towards Gaara and Sasuke stabbed right through Gaara's defenses and it was silent. Then all of a sudden a horrible scream pierced the air.

"IT"S MY BLOOD! MY BLOOD!"  
Sasuke jumped away from Gaara as the sand fell away and before I could see what happened next feathers started coming out of nowhere.

"What the heck.. It must be a genjutsu…. RELEASE!"

I looked at Naruto who had fallen asleep along with Shikamaru but Shino had disappeared along with the other 2 sand ninja. I woke up Shikamaru and Naruto just in time to see Sasuke chase after Gaara and the other 2 sand ninjas.

"Naruto, Shikamaru come on we're going after Sasuke to back him up against those sand ninjas. Looks like Shino followed him."

Naruto and Shikamaru got up and Naruto said, "What are you talking about Sakura? What's going on?"

Shikamaru answered "It's obvious what's going on Naruto. We've been betrayed by the sand and sound ninja. Now let's go."

We ran off after Sasuke with Naruto complaining about not understanding but we kept on going.

After 30 minutes of running we caught up with Shino just in time to notice that we were being followed.

"You guys go on ahead, I'm best at diversion jutsus with my shadow techniques and all. No go on before this gets to become more of a drag…"

Me and Naruto were about to argue but Shino said, "Alright Shikamaru."

We kept on going and we had almost caught up with Sasuke and the sand ninja when Kankuro came out of nowhere and attacked us with his puppet.

"You two go on ahead. My fight never started with this guy so I wanna see why he forfeited. Go on I'll be done in about 10 minutes anyway."

"Alright Shino you got it. Come on Sakura, Sasuke needs us!"

"Alright!"

We continued after Sasuke in the thick woods and finally we caught up to him just in time to be blasted back by a huge force of wind. At first I thought it was Temari but she was lying unconscious on a huge tree limb. Then I saw who or actually what it was. It was a beast like thing that looked like Gaara… no it is Gaara!

"Sasuke what the heck happened to Gaara? When did he transform into that thing?"

"I don't know Sakura but stay out of this. This is still my fight understand? This guy is dangerous and I don't want- I mean I don't need you getting hurt. It'll just be a hindrance so get back."

"Y-Yeah okay Sasuke you got it."

I backed away with Naruto in tow. Sasuke and Gaara were fighting like nothing I'd ever seen before but all of a sudden Sasuke got knocked back and I couldn't sit still as I saw him flying backwards. I jumped towards him against Naruto's protesting, and caught him. His eyes were shut and I laid him down and as he opened them slowly I heard him coming.

I turned around with a kunai in my hand ready in my hand and before I could even defend Sasuke, pain arched in my neck and I fell to my knees with the kunai still in my hands. I started gagging from the pain but soon a greater pain hit my whole body and I saw Sasuke move away from me as something dense surrounded my middle body.

I stopped flying threw the air finally and saw that sand had surrounded my body and was squeezing harder every second. I screamed and Naruto and Sasuke both screamed my name out simoultaneously. Then Gaara said, "You'd better hurry up and defeat me petty leaf ninjas or else that girl over there is going to die! HAHAHAHAHAHAhAHAHA!"

I tried building up my chakra but the pain in my neck increased until the point where my vision became blurry. I could hear myself screaming in pain but I felt like I was separated from my body and the last thing I saw was both Naruto and Sasuke charging at Gaara before I passed out.

I sat up and clutched my stomach in pain.

"Woh there Sakura, take it easy."

I looked up at who was talking to me and saw Kakashi sensei. I looked around me and I was in the hospital. Naruto and Sasuke were in there own separate beds and sitting up looking at me.

"What happened? Where's Gaara and what happened with the chunin exams?"

Kakashi sensei sat down next to me and said, "Calm down. Apparently you got caught in a very strong jutsu of Gaara's and Sasuke and Naruto protected you. Naruto defeated Gaara with Sasuke and collapsed afterwards. Sasuke took you both here and then collapsed himself and you were all put in the same room. As for the chunin exams…"

I looked at Kakashi sensei and asked, "What, what about them?"

Kakashi got up and looked at all three of us with a serious and sad expression and said, "It appears that the whole thing was a trap set up against us to get to Lord Hokage…"

Naruto asked, "W-What happened? What happened to the old man?"

Kakashi sensei looked down and said, "Lord Hokage is… Dead."


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

It had been a little over 2 months since the 3rd Hokage's funeral. Naruto had gone off with Master Juraiya to find a woman called Lady Tsunade. Something had happened to Sasuke and he was in the hospital right now and I was all alone. I had been visiting Sasuke daily but he still hadn't woken up and I was beginning to get worried about him. One other thing had been bothering and it was the mark on my neck. It had been throbbing lately and sometimes it got out of control and I collapsed as it spread throughout my body.

I had also been training daily and began to learn some new jutsus that would help me to support my team. Lee was still recovering from his injuries to his left body. Right now I was heading to the hospital to visit Sasuke and then to see how Lee was doing. I was almost there when I heard some running and panting and turned to see Ino with an anxious expression on her face.

"Stop right there billboard brow! Just what do you think you're doing?"

I was automatically pissed off. I was just walking to the hospital and she had the nerve to say something like that.** "You should just shove your fist in her face Sakura, that'll show her not to mees with ya CHAA!" said my Inner Voice.**

_"I can't do that.. even though I really want to…"_

I looked straight at Ino in annoyance and said, "Shutup Ino, you PIG. I'm just visiting _my teammate_ and Lee. Got a problem with that or are you jealous that I'm one of the only ones allowed to visit Sasuke?"

It wasn't a lie what I said. Only family and teammates could visit Sasuke, plus all of the Jonin or Chunin, but saying it out loud to Ino just made the fact that I was one of those lucky few made my satisfaction even greater because I knew it pissed her off even more than anything else.

"You shutup Sakura! He probably doesn't even care about you so you're just wasting your time with him! He probably thinks you're just some creeper, who can't stop being near him!"

I flinched at that, she must've been really angry about this whole situation. Instead of replying I walked toward the hosptital entrance and ignored Ino's everlasting taunts. I still didn't know how Sasuke felt about me. He would always say one thing and then another but it didn't matter to me. As long as I can be of some use to him I'm happy with that.

I signed in to the hospital but made my visit brief. I left after an hour and went back home to get some training supplies. I went into the forest and began training. I started with tree climbing and then agility. Then I began agility training on water and then some kunai and shuriken throwing practice. I started working on my jutsu but after awhile I just wasn't into it. I'd gotten better at genjutsu and had learned some new ninjutsus but I really needed to work on my taijutsu but I needed a partner and it would be easier for me to practice with my team but they were all unavailable. I left for home and went to bed thinking about how the village had been doing. We were still repairing many of the neighborhoods and a bunch of people were still in the hospital. I fell asleep with worry in my mind and fear in my heart.

I woke up to a loud voice shouting my name.

"SAKURA! WAKE UP! I'M BACK FROM MY TRIP WITH PERVY SAGE! COME ONE SAKURA WAKE UP! WE FOUND GRANDMA TSUNADE!"

I sat up with sleep still in my eyes and looked out my window and saw Naruto standing below it with his hands around his mouth preparing to shout again but then he saw me and gave me one of his stupid grins.

"Naruto! What took you so long to get back! When did you get back?"

"Just now I got back but it wasn't easy finding the woman we were searching for. Come on down she's gonna take a look at Sasuke and Kakashi sensei and she might be able to heal Lee too. Oh and I can't wait to show you my new super cool high level ninjutsu!'

I got dressed and headed down to meet Naruto and he told me all about his trip and how they had run into Orochimaru. For some reason when he mentioned Orochimaru, the mark on my neck started pulsing with pain and I compulsively put my hand to my neck and Naruto noticed right away.

"Sakura is it bothering you again?"

"Uh-uh no Naruto. It hasn't bothered me since the Chunin exams. Something just stung my neck is all." I felt bad about lying to him but I didn't need him worrying about something as trivial as the mark.

"Oh okay then."

He continued with his story and after he stopped I told him about how the village was doing and by the time I was finished we had gotten to the hospital where 2 older people were standing looking at us.

"Hey Pervy Sage! This is Sakura, Sakura this is Pervy Sage and Grandma Tsunade. This is the old hag I was telling you about that's gonna heal Sasuke and Lee and the sensei!"

All of a sudden Naruto wasn't standing by me but the woman was with her fist in the air and Naruto was nowhere. I looked at her in fear and saw the most terrifying look on her face that I've ever seen. Naruto fell out of the sky a minute later and she said, "What was that ya little pipsqueak? Let me hear you say that again? Who's an old hag? If you wanna be Hokage someday you might wanna keep your mouth shut or else…"

She walked up to him as he cowered and said,"Your gonna die."

"Yes ma'am. Won't happen again."

"Now let's go see those important friends of yours."

She dragged Naruto by his collar and walked staright past me and the frog hermit and I could sense her rage as well as her chakra and it was frightening. Naruto tried to get up but she kept him down and me and the hermit followed her hesitantly.

She took a look at Sasuke and placed her hand on him and he woke up and my heart stoppec as he sat up and I felt something warm fall down my cheek and then something else warm ran down my cheek and I noticed I was crying. Sasuke looked at me with blank tired eyes and I ran and hugged him and began sobbing on him. I heard the rest of the group walk out.

We stayed like that for a few minutes and then Sasuke asked, "What…did he do…to you… Sakura?"

I sat up and said, "What? Who did what to me?"

"Naruto.. What did he… do to make you cry?"

I was surprised, I didn't know why he was asking that but I answered, "N-nothing Sasuke. You've been unconscious for about a month and a half and I've been worried about you and.. and.. I'm just so happy you're finally awake!"

He didn't look like he was listening but he was staring at the entryway and I said, "Oh you probably won't be able to leave for awhile but I'll come visit you everyday until you can leave okay?"

"Alright then. I'm hungry, do you think you could get an apple for me please?"

"Yeah no problem! I'll be right back!"

I walked out and had planned on going to the market but I saw Shikamaru with a fruit basket and asked him if I could have a few apples and he gave me some and I went back to Sasuke's room and Naruto was about to enter. He saw me and looked away before I came up and asked him, "What's wrong Naruto? Is.. is it sensei? What happened to Kakashi-sensei?"

"Kakashi-sensei is alright Sakura. Its… its Lee. Grandma Tsunade said he won't be able to be a shinobi ever again. She said there was a 50% chance of death by a surgery she could perform on him."

I couldn't believe it Lee would never be a ninja again… We walked into Sasuke's room and I sat down and began peeling the apple but I couldn't get what Naruto had just said out of my head. I'd begun tearing up and I think Sasuke noticed because he glared at Naruto who looked clueless.

"Hey Sasuke, don't these look good? Here have so-"

Sasuke knocked the apples away and I screamed in shock and Naruto jumped away. Sasuke must have been mad because he glared at Naruto then I noticed his Sharingan.

"Naruto let's have a fight. I wanna teach you a lesson."

Naruto looked confused but said, "Lesson? About what?"

"About whose the stronger one on this team. Let's go."

He walked away and Naruto followed and I was left alone in the room full of confusion and scared.

Naruto followed me upstairs and I was still mad at him. I didn't care what he said to her but he hurt Sakura and I wasn't about to forgive that no matter how confused they were. He was ready for this fight, he had promised he would protect Sakura from pain and she had obviously been in pain because of him and now Naruto had been about to bring her to tears.

He was so pissed off at himself and Naruto that he was glad he had challenged Naruto. They had reached the roof and they silently stood across from each other and Naruto put his headband on and Sasuke got into a fighting stance and when Naruto got into his Sasuke shouted, "Fire style! Phoenix flower jutsu!"

Several fireballs went after Naruto who dodged them all and created about 50 shadow clones in turn but using taijutsu alone Sasuke got rid of all but 2 of the Narutos. Naruto was creating some kind of chakra sphere in his palm and Sasuke decided to jump into the air and create his chidori and attack Naruto from the air. They were just about to attack when Sakura ran out and was just about to come between them.

Sasuke tried to stop but it was too late and he began to panick in fear of Sakura getting hurt and he looked at Naruto and knew that it was hopeless and that neither of them could stop but then he was thrown and so was Naruto and he saw Kakashi standing where he and Naruto would've clashed. He looked at Sakura and his heart wrenched. She was crying because of what he had done.

_ "Damn it.. I'm such an idiot!"_

He pulled his arm out of the metal water tower and saw he had only made a fist sized whole but when he saw Naruto's pebble sized whole he felt somewhat better. He walked away and saw Naruto walk away as well. Sasuke walked to a huge tree and began to let his anger boil even more as he sat there. Kakashi appeared out of nowhere and he knew he was about to be talked to.

Naruto walked away and told me to stay out of this but I couldn't stay out of it because they were my team. I followed Sasuke to talk to him but before I found him I noticed 4 people who should not have been in our village. I ran behind a building and transformed into Master Juraiya and ran off to tell Kakashi-sensei, who I was sur had followed Sasuke as well.

I found them after about 10 minutes and told Kakashi and Sasuke about the ninjas that I had seen.

"Are you absolutely sure Sakura? Are you sure it was them?"

"Yes Kakashi-sensei."

"What would they want at this time… and why?"

Sudden realization crossed my sensei's face and he looked at Sasuke and said,

"They must still think Orochimaru bit you… They must be targeting you Sasuke."

I didn't know what to think. It had to be true though and it was my fault they were back in the village. I had to do something… I needed to be useful for once…

"I'll find out what they want."

Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke looked at me in surprise but Kakashi said, "No. It's too dangerous."

"I'm the only one who can do it sensei. Plus they won't kill Sasuke, they probably need him alive. I'll transform into sasuke and they'll probably confront me here. You guys can just stay nearby but not close enough to the point where they can sense you."

Sasuke didn't speak but Kakashi agreed with the plan. I transformed again into Sasuke and Sasuke transformed into Juraiya. Sasue looked at me and asked, "By the way, why did you transform into this guy?"

"I figured since he's a Sanin they wouldn't approach you with me looking like him. Now go, before they come and notice something."

They ran off together and I waited and waited and waited. They finally appeared in front of me. The Sound ninja that were part of Orochimaru's barrier that helped kill our Hokage. At first they fought me and then we talked and I struggled to keep my transformation in place but I somehow did it and as they talked I began to understand what was happening and after they left I was in shock at what they said.

Kakashi and Sasuke appeared in front of me minutes later and I told them what had happened and I untransformed and said, "I have to leave the village."

Sasuke stared at me in shock and they were both speechless as was I.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

"What do you mean you have to leave the village? You can't leave Sakura, you'll be in too much danger!"

I looked at Sasuke sadly and then towards my sensei, who even though most of his face was covered with a mask I could tell he was worried just by looking in his eye.

"Weren't you listening to me earlier Sasuke? They leave tonight with or without me, and there's something else…"

Kakashi-sensei looked at me with suspicion and Sasuke looked even more upset.

"What is it? What could possibly make this even acceptable Sakura?"

Kakashi-sensei put a hand on Sasuke's shoulder and said," Quiet, your shouting is going to attract unwanted attention Sasuke. Sakura what did you not tell us?"

I turned around because I couldn't tell them what was happening to me while looking them in the eyes, and then I said, "Kakashi-sensei… Sasuke… this curse mark is absorbing my chakra. Everytime I leave to go on a mission I am a liability to my village and to myself."

They were both quiet and I realised that I was crying. Kakashi-sensei came up and put his hand on my shoulder and said,"So you want to go to get help… am I right Sakura?"

I nodded and I wiped the tears from my eyes and said,"I know it's dangerous but I can pull off a long lasting transformation jutsu."

"YOUR SUCH A FOOL SAKURA! YOU HONESTLY THINK THIS WILL WORK!"

I looked at Sasuke in surprise he had never sounded this mad before and never at me.

"Sasuke quiet down, you're going to attract attention to us."

"I WILL NOT! Do you hear her sensei? This mission would be suicidal!" He turned and looked at me and there wasn't really anger in his eyes, but more like hurt and sadness. "How can you be so selfish? What if you get hurt or worse! How do you even think they can help you because if your planning on just going to Orochimaru's hideout YOU ARE insane because he will notice right away and you WILL be killed Sakura."

I was shocked, he wasn't talking about everyone's feelings but his own. Why did he care so much about me now? He never repaid my affections before now.

"Why do you care so much Sasuke? If I don't go I AM going to die! They have something with them that will help me! I do have plan and I was going to tell Lady Tsunade about it but after I got Kakashi-sensei's approval! So what is your problem?"

"I have a problem because it's my fault Sakura! It's my fault this happened to you… I should never have agreed to your plan… Its just… I don't want to lose anymore comrades! But you should already know that right? Seeing as how smart you are…"

I was speechless and somewhat hurt… he was talking about his clan's massacre and comparing me to that of just a comrade. He had no special feelings for me and I felt stupid for just thinking it… sasuke had averted his eyes and averted mine as well. Then he turned away and said, "Whatever I'm leaving…" and before I could stop him he was gone.

"Well Sakura how about you tell me your plan and then we head over to Lady Tsunade's office since either way you do need to go to them to be saved."

I looked at him surprised but nodded and told him my whole plan and then we headed over to the Hokage's office where we waited to meet with Tsunade.

Tsunade's Office

"I understand so far but what is your plan on this Sakura?"

I took in a deep breath and said,"I plan on transforming myself as Sasuke and joining them as said before but I already know we are headed. I will head out with the sound ninja and about 15 to 30 minutes later you need to start following us, except we'll send a group of 5 to a clearing that the sound ninja will pass before trying to leave the land of fire. This way we can abush them and I won't have to worry about the curse mark killing me. Is that plan okay?"

Lady Tsunade nodded and turned to Shizune who must have understood what Lady Tsunade wanted because she walked over to a file cabinet and pulled out some folders and gave them to Lady Tsunade who looked at them and then laid them out in front of me on her desk.

"These are all of the available ninja for this mission, of course not including those in this room. You can choose who you need for this mission to be a success."

I looked at the files and saw mostly genin. The only people available were: Neji, Hinata, Naruto, Sasuke, Shikamaru, Ino, Choji, Kiba, and Tenten. I already knew how the teams would be assembled just based on these guys. I knew all of them because most were the rookie 9 and in this group was Shikamaru who was the only one who had passed the chunin exams.

"I've decided who I want ma'am. I want 2 teams of 6. Team 1 will have Naruto, Sasuke, Neji, Kiba, and Tenten. Team 2 will have Hinata, Ino, Choji, and Shikamaru. Team 1 will be waiting in the clearing and Team 2 will be the ones to track the sound ninja."

Lady Tsunade looked surprised because she stood up and said," Sakura you realise that's everyone from the list right? WE can't have too many numbers or there WILL be casualties."

"My Lady I am sorry but I am not done. I wish for Kakshi-sensei and for Shizune too join Team 2. Also we'll need you in Team 1. Before you disagree I have a reason."

"Fine explain yourself and depending on your answer I might just hand this over to someone else and not even bother with it all together."

I gulped down my fear of the Hokage and said,"With all due respect, these 4 sound ninjas are the ones who are partially responsible for the 3rd Hokage's death. They were so powerful the anbu couldn't get to them and moreover they jutsu even the 3rd couldn't defeat. I need you to aid Team 2 because if they get any action before the other team meets up they won't stand a chance and then not only will they be either dead or critically injured but I'll be out of the country. You're also the best medic ninja in the world and we need you."

I looked at Shizune and then to Kakashi-sensei and said,"I need you two to join Team 2 because you're both jonin level and excellent trackers. Plus Shizune you're the best medic ninja second to only Lady Tsunade herself."

I turned back to Lady Tsunade and she had sat back down and had her hands folded in front of her face. She had closed her eyes to think and finally she got up and walked to the window that over saw the whole village.

"Fine, I will join this mission as will Kakashi and Shizune. Shizune call for all of the ninja listed in those files so that we can debrief them." She turned towards me and her face was very serious and scary but also concerned all at the same time. "Sakura, be careful. You go get ready now and tell your parents you're headed out on a mission. Leave the rest to us and have faith that we will not let you cross the borderline."

I nodded and said,"Yes ma'am!" I walked out her office and immediately ran home not saying a word to my parents and then I packed my things and waited to return to the Hokage.

The Mission Debriefing

Everyone had been gathered and Lady Tsunade explained the situation to them all. She showed them a geographical chart which showed groups and destinations and starting points. After explaining where everyone would be headed she had everyone gather in their groups but one person out of all of them was more upset than the rest.

"You agreed to this plan Lady Hokage? And you too Kakashi-sensei? I thought this would never happen but I mean come one! This is dangerous, they'll detect us because our large numbers!"

Lady Tsunade turned toward Sasuke and said,"I know you're worried but weren't you listening? Not only is this the only safe way for this mission to succeed, we have a strategy specialist and 2 jonin and myself we'll be joining all of you. What problem do you have?"

Sasuke didn't say anything but turned his head and looked down at the floor in frustration. He knew she was right but he still didn't want Sakura to do this alone.

"Alright then everyone go home and 1 will head straight to the clearing before Sakura meets up with the sound ninja. After sundown Team 2 is to head out and follow the sound ninja. Sakura will be leaving at sundown with the sound ninja but we need to give them distance so wait 15 minutes before leaving got it?"

Everyone said,"Yes ma'am!" Then they left and packed. Team 1 headed out 10 minutes later and the mission began.

Back to Sakura

I had packed and told my mom a fake description of the mission and then I headed out to meet the sound ninja. Before getting too close to the gate I went inside an empty building and transformed into Sasuke and ran to the meeting place. The sound ninja weren't there but appeared in front of me a second later.

I regarded them but they were silent. "Well are we leaving or what?"

They knelt and one said,"Yes sir."

I acted how Sasuke would and sneered at him and said,"What's with the change in attitude?"

"it was decided that if you came you would be our new leader and we would become the sound 5 again."

"Whatever lets just leave."

They got up and we left the leaf village behind and the mission had begun. 15 minutes later Team 2 headed out after the sound ninja and Team 1 had arrived at the clearing and lied in wait. Sasuke had to reluctantly transform into Sakura to make sure this mission was a success and also because it was the only reason he was allowed to be on the mission.

30 minutes after the sound ninja and Sakura had headed out they stopped. One of the sound pulled out a bottle of pills and the others pulled out scrolls.

"what's going on? Why have we stopped?"

The guy with 2 heads walked towards me and took 3 small pills and put them in my hand. "Before we go any farther, you need to take these. They will stop the curse from killing you and will also remove the seal. We can't proceed without you taking them though."

I looked down at them and then I put them up to my mouth and swallowed them. A second later my body was in pain and I fell down. I remember someone picking me up and placing me in something and then being swallowed by darkness. The pain started getting more intense and then I lost consciousness.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

The guy with two heads quickly pulled out his scroll and shouted,"Hurry! We can't lose him!" They all sat down and cast a 4 part jutsu and then they sat back catching hteir breath.

"Alright Jirobo you carry him now."

"Why do I have to carry him Sakon?"

A girl with red hair sneered at him and said,"Aw is the fatty too tired? Well too bad!"

"Whatever Tayuya."

A guy with 4 arms got up and tossed the box containing Sakura in it to Jirobo and said,"You know why you're carrying him Jirobo, it was already decided before we left."

Jirobo caught the box and mumbled,"Man I hate Rock, Paper, Scissors…"

They all jumped up into the trees and started running towards the border of the land of fire.

Team 2

Hinata was surveying her surroundings with her byakugan and then turned to the rest of her team and said,"Okay they've started moving again. We can follow but not too fast because they're laboured with something big…" she turned away from them but Kakashi noticed she wasn't saying something.

"What aren't you saying Hinata? What are they being laboured with and how is Sakura doing?"

Hinata moved her hands in front of her mouth and said,"That's just it Kakashi-sensei… she is the one that's labouring the sound ninja… t-they put her in some kind of coffin box and then this immense dark chakra engulfed her…"

Kakashi stood up as did the others and nodded,"This must be that thing they were talking about that would fix the curse mark. Alright everyone lets move."

And with that they began tailing them again and they managed to stay hidden for awhile but then something happened and Kakashi shouted,"Scatter!" The group split into groups of 3 and right where they had all been a whole volley of weird looking kunai and shuriken were launched. They hid behind trees but not too far from one another and remained quiet, waiting for the enemy to come and attack.

Kakashi pulled down his mask to his nose and activated his sharingan. He looked around and barely saw the threads that had been prepared as a trap. He pulled out some thorwing stars and waited a few minutes before throwing them. The strings snapped and more of those weird shuriken and kunai launched at the areas where Kakashi had snipped the threads.

Everything was quiet and no one approached so he looked at Shizune and they both nodded, and Team 2 gathered again. Kakashi looked at the whole group and said,"It looks like the sound ninja are being very careful, and since they've laid these traps we should assume they know that they're being followed. Be careful of your surroundings as we continue moving forward. Let's get going."

They began following the sound ninja again and they all kept an eye out for traps which slowed them down a bit. Hinata and Shikamaru cut must of the traps as did Kakashi and Shizune. Shikamaru caught a kunai heading toward him and examined it and went up and ran along Kakashi.

"Hey Kakashi take a look at the enemies kunai. Its covered in some weird kind of crust."

He tossed it at Kakashi, who caught it and examined it for a minute or two. "The kunai isn't covered in crust Shikamaru. This is not a normal kunai, didn't you notice how sticky it is? Plus it's not as heavy as a regular kunai. Our enemies have strange abilities but they are Orochimaru's followers so it should be expected."

They followed them faster now and kept hacking away at traps. They stopped to rest only when the sound ninja rested and Hinata would keep an eye on Sakura and give them updates on her condition.

"Right now an enormous layer of chakra is engulfing her body and she lost the hold on her transformation jutsu. She must be in a lot of pain, right sensei?"

Kakashi nodded and Shizune said,"It must have something to do with what they gave her to stop the curse mark from eating away at her. I'm guessing it was some kind of specialized food pill designed for those with the curse mark only."

"That sounds like good assumption Shizune. Alright you guys we're almost at the clearing, so let's-"

Kakashi turned around and clashed with a four arm shinobi who had another weird kunai in his hand. "Well, well, well… if it isn't the copy ninja Kakashi Hatake. Didn't expect you to be part of the group following us."

They broke apart and the four armed man jumped high into the trees and said,"I am Kidomaru of the east gate. Just try and take me down puny little leaf ninja."

Kakashi turned towards Ino, Choji, Shikamaru and said,"Time for the Ino/Shika/Cho combination. I'll distract him and you guys know what to do." They broke off and Kakashi went for the attack. He used several of his copied techniques and all Kidomaru could do for awhile was defend. Kakashi put a genjutsu on him with his sharingan and before he could break out of it Shikamaru caught him in the shadow possession jutsu.

"Damn you copy ninja. I didn't think I would even need to use this on low-level ninja like you but I guess I have to…" All of a sudden his body starting turning red and his hair grew long and spat some gold looking liquid at Shikamaru and he was released from the possession jutsu and Shikamaru went flying and hit a tree.

The gold liquid had hardened and Shikamaru was attached to the tree and his arms were under the hardened substance so he couldn't break free. Hinata activated her byakugan and she saw that Kidomaru's body was releasing a whole lot of chakra and that his golden substance still contained chakra.

"Kakashi-sensei the golden substance is flowing with his chakra and he is releasing a lot of chakra be careful!"

Hinata ran to Shikamaru and used her gentle fist style to break him out. She caught him and as he stood up Kidomaru used a summoning jutsu and summoned a gigantic spider.

"This will take care of most of you low-level worms. Like the Hyuuga girl for example. Lets see how you fare against this copy ninja Kakashi!"

The giant spider went after Hinata but Shizune went for the attack with her medical ninjutsu but after a few attacks to the spider's stomach it exploded into thousands of smaller spiders.

"Kakashi we need a fire jutsu to get rid of this summonned spider!"

"alright then! Fire style! Giant Fireball jutsu!" Kakashi spread his flames throughout all of the spiders and they all disappeared ina puff of smoke. Then Kakashi disappeared in a puff of smoke and there was a weird sound coming from the direction where Kidomaru was hanging.

"LIGHTNING BLADE!" Everyone looked up and saw Kakashi had used his Lightning blade and had ran his hand straight through Kidomaru's chest. "You're done for Kidomaru of the east gate. This is your repentance for the death of Lord Hokage."

Kidomaru slowly turned back to normal and he looked at Kakashi and said,"Bastard…" and he fell 100 feet to the ground. They had defeated Kidomaru and now there were only 3 left to go.

Kakashi jumped down to the ground and fell to one knee. "Everyone rest and recooperate before moving out again. Once we've rested we'll head out after them again. Shizune can you take a look at my right arm please?"

Shizune nodded and pulled up his right sleeve and his arm was covered in the gold liquid and it was quickly solidifying. "I can't get to the injury with this in the way if we don't hurry it could infect your body and I don't know what would happen after that. Hinata come over here and help me please."

Hinata went over and used her gentle fist to break the golden substance and Shizune immediately began examining it. Some had gotten in but she had managed to take it out. She bagan healing his arm and then bandaged it. "Shikamaru you come here too because I'm willing to bet you have a few broken ribs."

It turns out he did but he got fixed up quickly. Kakashi got up and said,"Lets get going before we lose them." They left and went after them and Kidomaru watched as they left. They had thought he had died but they were wrong. Kidomaru sent out a sound vibration to the rest of his group and gave them the message and with his last breath he said,"Man… Tayuya's going to be pissed…"

The Sound ninja

"You guys get the message from Kidomaru?" asked Sakon.

Jirobo nodded and Tayuya said,"What a stupid dumbass!To get beaten by lowly leaf ninja! He was really weak anyways. Let's move."

Sakon sneered and said,"Alright Tayuya, besides the ones who killed Kidomaru are sure to be chasing us still. We can't fail Lord Orochimaru, we need to get Sasuke to the hideout soon, time is almost up."

They continued toward the border and then Jirobo stopped and Sakon and Tayuya noticed he had stopped so they stopped.

"Are you tired already fatso? Come on we're almost there, get moving fatass! We don't have time for you to take a snack break!"

Jirobo tossed the coffin at Sakon who caught it and said,"Can't you guys sense it? They're near, I'll get rid of them and meet up with you guys."

Sakon nodded and continued forward. Tayuya didn't move but said,"'bout time you showed some balls Jirobo. Do us a favor and don't get killed."

Jirobo looked at her and said,"whatever now get going Tayuya."

She left and Jirobo waited and then he saw them and shouted,"I am Jirobo of the south gate!" Kakashi made the group wait but then there was a weird shaking and Team 2 fell under a shadow as Jirobo striked first.

**I want to say sorry to everyone who supports me and my fanfiction. I am extremely sorry that I have not been updating all that fast I've just been having some personal issues to deal with and I also have not been able to find the time to do any updates. I will be trying to update at least one chapter every weekend but if I can't I'll make up for by making 2 a week. Again I apologize and hope you'll still read, also review I want to know how I'm doing since I'm out of pactice. Thank you all so much **


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

"SCATTER!" yelled Kakashi. Team 2 split up into twos about 50 kilometers away from their previous location and right where all of them had been a rock the size of 2 Ichiraku ramen shops. It would have crushed at least half of the team if Kakashi hadn't warned them.

"Come and fight me you puny leaf ninjas! I'm in the mood for a snack!" shouted Jirobo. He jumped out of nowhere and attacked Ino but Choji got in the way and shouted,"Partial expansion jutsu! Stomach!" Jirobo was blown back by the now giant, bouncy stomach of Choji and hit a tree that broke upon impact.

"ugh… I'll deal with you first… you pudgy leaf ninja. You'll pay for what you just did to me!" Jirobo jumped towards Choji but then froze in place. "What the-"

"Ino now!" shouted Shikamaru. Then Ino appeared about 10 feet in front of Jirobo, "Mind transfer jutsu!" Ino fell sideways and Shizune caught her and then Shikamaru released Jirobo and then he said, "Alright guys hurry I don't know how long this will last!"

"Alright Ino/Shika/Cho combination complete. Kakashi would you like to do the honors?"

Kakashi appeared behind the now possessed Jirobo and said, "This was too easy, just in case secure him again Shikamaru. Now Ino, release him." Shikamaru waited for Ino and then used his shadow possession jutsu. Jirobo came to himself again but Kakashi had a kunai to his back and his neck.

"Don't move, Jirobo of the east. This was way too easy for us or are you just that weak of a fighter? You insulted us and took my student and now I'm going to take him back." Jirobo gulped and asked, "What're you going to do to me?" Kakashi smiled and said, "I'm either going to kill you or send you back to the village to be interrogated but seeing as we haven't even seen all of you power, I think I'll kill you." Kakashi stabbed Jirobo in the back and sliced his throat for good measure.

They began moving on when a tree came flying at Kakashi and hit him square in the back. Shikamaru caught him before he fell and everyone else turned around in shock to see Jirobo whose features had also changed but he was holding his throat which was still bleeding but not as much as it was before.

"How in the world are you still alive? You should be dead right now in a pool of your own blood," Said Shikamaru. He put Kakashi down and had Shizune come over and look at him. Jirobo came at Choji and punched him square in the stomach and he went flying about 50 feet. "Choji," Shikamaru turned toward Jirobo and said, "You're going to pay for that!" Shikamaru went after Jirobo and threw shuriken, kunai, and throwing stars.

"Heh your all better off without him anyways. He's probably just a bunch of dead weight." Jirobo had dodged all of Shikamau's attacks and didn't let him get near his shadow. Then all of a sudden Choji appeared out of nowhere with his fist in the back of Jirobo. His body was glowing with yellow chakra and he looked thinner.

"I am _not_ dead weight to this team fatso!" He gave Jirobo a round house kick and then a fist to the face and then he put all of his chakra into his foot and kicked Jirobo right in the throat and not only did Jirobo fly straight into a tree but his wound reopened and he began bleeding all over again and this time he couldn't stop it because Shikamaru had captured him once again with his shadow possession jutsu.

"Just in case you try to pull off another miracle I'm going to show you my new jutsu. Shadow strangle jutsu!" Shikamaru's shadows turned into outstretched hands and went for Jirobo's throat. It was obvious Jirobo was trying to say something but his throat was too damaged and in less then a minute he was finally no more. Shikamaru turned around to see Choji on the ground motionless and he jumped straight down, fearing that his best friend had gone too far.

"Choji! You didn't… you didn't eat the red pill did you? Tell me you didn't buddy!" Choji was still motionless and Shikamaru reached into Choji's ninja tool bag and pulled out a pill container that had a green pill and a red pill. Shikamaru sighed and Shizune came down to check on him and said, "He'll be fine Shikamaru I'll just heal him to speed up the resting process but if we get into another fight he'll have to sit it out."

Choji woke up and smiled and they congratulated him on a job well done and then they went to see Kakashi. He was standing but it was obvious he was still in pain. "Come one you three, we've lost valuable time fighting that guy. The others should almost be at the clearing." So with that they went after the sound ninja again. They were finally caught up with them just before they had reached the clearing. The sound ninja went out in the clearing and got as far as halfway before they were ambushed by Team 1.

They tried retreating back to the woods but then they were ambushed by Team 2 and they were now trapped with nowhere to go. Tayuya placed the coffin down and Sakon started talking to his other head. "What the heck is going on here Sakon? I thought that fatso Jirobo was going to take care of these worms!" Sakon stopped talking to himself and his other head began to come out of his body until there were two Sakons.

"Well apparently the group by the forest were the ones who killed both Kidomaru and Jirobo. At least that's what Ukon has told me ." They activated the first stage of their curse mark and splotches of black spread all over Sakon and Ukon's body. Tayuya pulled out a flute and shouted, "I can't believe that idiot died so easily! I knew he was the dead weight of this group! If we don't kill these guys we're going to be too late for Lord Orochimaru! Let's kick this up to second stage!"

Tayuya went straight into second stage for the curse mark and her body began to change dramatically. She grew 3 horns on her head, her hair grew longer and her skin turned into a brownish color. Sakon and Ukon both went into their second stage and Sakon turned into something of a red rocky monster with one horn and Ukon turned into a blue rocky monster with one horn.

"You won't be killing any of them and you won't be getting back to Orochimaru! At least not as long as I am Hokage," shouted Lady Tsunade. Sakon, Ukon, and Tayuya looked at Team 1 for the first time and realized they were extremely outmatched with Tsunade being there.

"What's one of the legendary sanin doing here? Don't you have something better to do than come with your lowly subordinates?" shouted Tayuya. Tayuya ran straight at Tsunade and gave her a hard kick to the stomach breaking some of her ribs and while Tsunade was recovering from Tayuya's attack, Tayuya summoned three ugly giants that came at all of Team 1 as she controlled them with her flute.

"Alright guys let's take down those ugly things!" shouted Naruto. "Shadow clone jutsu!" Naruto made 5 clones and then 3 pairs of clones made rasengans. The 3 narutos that had the rasengan in their hands moved forward and the other 3 looked at Neji, Sakura, Tenten, and Kiba and said, "When they attack them you keep going at them with your jutsu so that we can take those ugly creeps out as soon as possible!"

The rest of Team 1 nodded and the Narutos attacked each giant individually and they were blown back 20 feet and then Team 1 went after them. Kiba and Akamaru used their fang over fang, Neji used his style of the gentle fist, Sakura used taijutsu and Tenten helped her out with one giant using her weapon mastery. They were only keeping the giants down but they weren't disappearing and then Lady Tsunade appeared behind an unaware Tayuya, and punched her square in the back.

Tayuya flew and hit the giant Neji was fighting and Neji quickly used his gentle fist 64 palms jutsu against her. All her chakra points were now blocked and her curse mark power faded. Tsunade picked up the flute and crushed it with her bare hands and then she stomped on it and it broke into several pieces. Neji checked to see if she had any weapons and she didn't so Tsunade went up to her.

"G-get away… you bitch… I'll d-destroy you…" Tayuya was now weak and close to passing out. Tsunade put her hand to Tayuya's forehead and Tayuya passed out. "What did you do to her Lady Hokage?" Tsunade grabbed Tayuya by the back of the shirt and said,"Knocked her out with my medical ninjutsu. I'm going to have Ibiki question her.

The three giants had disappeared in huge puffs of smoke and Sakon and Ukon had both screamed her name but it went unanswered. Team 2 was having trouble taking care of both Sakon and Ukon but Team 1 not counting Tsunade went over to help incapacitate the enemy. Kakashi was wounded badly from all of the fights so far and wasn't of much help. It was up to everyone else to defeat them.

Meanwhile the coffin was beginning to leak pinkish chakra and the only ones who noticed were Kakashi, Neji, Hinata, and Sakura. They had almost cornered Ukon but he quickly recovered and retaliated. He went after Sakura but Naruto blocked him and was hit in the chest and he collapsed but quickly rose and his features started changing. His eyes had turned red, his hair more wild, and his canine teeth grew larger.

"I'm not going to let you hurt my friends any longer! You won't be leaving here alive and you won't be taking Sasuke!" he said in a dark, growling voice. He went after Ukon and his red chakra burned him and Ukon got distracted and Naruto gave him one of his famous left hooks. Ukon went flying and didn't get back up but that didn't stop Naruto from using a point-blank rasengan on him. Ukon started to turn back to normal again and Sakon struggled to get to his twin brother even though he knew it was too late.

Sakon screamed in frustration and went after Naruto, who was now exhausted and out of chakra. He was about to pound him into the ground when Sakura came to his rescue and used a Firestyle technique that pushed Sakon back towards the others. Only a few were still fighting Sakon. There was Neji, Sakura, Kiba, and Hinata. Naruto and Ino were unconscious from loss of chakra but were slowly recovering thanks to the help of Shizune. The rest were watching the coffin which as now streaming pink chakra out into its surrounding area.

The fighting stopped when the others noticed and Sakon said, "The rest of my group may have been killed but you're all too late. The transformation is complete. The curse seal will no longer bother Sasuke and now the curse mark can be used to its fullest potential without it eating him alive! You've all failed your precious mission! Hahahahahahahahahahaa!"

Then Sakura stepped up closer to the coffin and said in Sasuke's voice, "Finally I can change back." She was covered in smoke and when it cleared Sasuke was standing where Sakura had been, and had a smirk on his face. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to keep up a transformation jutsu while involved in a full scale battle?"

Sakon looked at Sasuke and then at the coffin, which hadn't opened yet. "What the… What the hell is going on? You're supposed to be in there!" He pointed at the box and looked at Sasuke incredulously. Everyone laughed at Sakon's confusion and ignorance and Sasuke said, "Haven't you figured it out yet?"

Sakon's eyes widened and he said, "No… no… It can't be! Lord Orochimaru wouldn't make that kind of mistake!" Sasuke sneered at him and pulled down the neck of his shirt and where the curse should have been there was just plain unmarked skin. "Well apparently he did make a mistake and it took place way back during the 2nd round of the Chunin exams. I would explain it all to you but I'm sure you understand once you see who steps out."

Sakon snarled and shouted, "No one's going to come out of there while I'm here!" He made a move forward but Shikamaru stopped him in his tracks and then Naruto and Kakashi made shadow clones that surrounded the coffin and barricaded Sakon from getting through to it.

The coffin lid moved and finally slid off and out stepped a pink haired kunoichi with half of her body covered in black marks. She looked powerful and when she turned around one of her eyes had been changed because of the halfway effects of the curse mark. One eye was orange and the other one was a bright emerald green.

She stepped out closer to her friends and Naruto shouted, "Sakura you made it! I'm glad you're okay." Sakura smiled and said, "You were all very great in deceiving our enemy. Now let me give you guys a break and take care of the last bad guy. I want to try out my new powers."

The real Kakashi stepped forward and said, "Sakura be careful and don't let it consume you alright?" Sakura nodded and everyone made way for Sakura and Sakon to fight.

Sakon growled at her and said, "You! Why were _you_ in the coffin?" Sakura stepped closer to him and got into a fighting stance and said, "I was the one bitten by Orochimaru in the forest when I transformed into Sasuke and he into me. I was the one you and the rest of the sound ninja talked too and I was the one who planned this whole mission."

"You won't leave here alive little girl. I'll crush you! Because of you my brother is dead and because of you Orochimaru's plans have been ruined!" He came at her but she stopped him with the palm of her hand and said, "Thanks to your ignorance and to that of Orochimaru's, I am much, much, _ much_ stronger than you now. And for that I thank you but I won't let you survive this. I am going to kill you for all that you've done Sakon of the west gate."

Sakon struggled to get free but Sakura kept on crushing his fist and then with her other fist she punched him in the stomach and forced her chakra into him and he collapsed as he felt his ribs break, and his lungs got punctured. Sakon started to feel true fear and looked up and the girl who had given him a death blow and she said, "I am Sakura Haruno of the leaf village, and now you will pay with your life for what you did to our village." She gave him a round house kick and he flew back and hit a huge oak tree with his back and he rebounded off of it and fell to the ground. He slowly bled to death, not being able to move because of his now fractured spine and the last thing he saw was Sakura Haruno staring at him with unfeeling eyes and Sakon took his last wheezy breath and died.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Everyone watched as Sakura dominated the battle between her and Sakon. They were amazed to see how much she had changed in just a short time, her strength was incredible and she wasn't even using any jutsu. Naruto being the happy idiot he is was cheering on Sakura like it was the tournament all over again.

Sasuke was observing her chakra levels with his Sharingan just as Neji and Hinata were observing with their byakugan. They could all see what was going on with Sakura and were amazed by the amount her chakra levels had spiked. When it was all over and Sakon was dead everyone was staring at her in astonishment. The only ones who were so amazed that they couldn't move even after she came towards them were Kakashi, Sasuke, Neji, and Hinata.

Naruto was the first one who ran to her and gave her an abrupt hug, but soon all of the other genin had run to her side and gave congratulations, all except Neji and Sasuke. They were still staring at her in amazement. Kakashi went to Sakura to make sure she was okay and she was tired from using the curse mark but she was okay.

They were still talking when Kiba and Akamaru smelled something out of place. "Hey Kakashi-sensei! We may have a problem, we've got more company coming this way and by the smell of him he's a real powerful one."

Everyone paused and became really quiet and Kakashi said, "Are you sure Kiba? Is there only one coming this way?"

Neji was looking in the direction of the enemy and he saw an enemy dressed like the others but his body seemed to be secreting chakra uncontrollably and he was holding something that looked like bone. He looked at Kakashi and said, "There's no mistake, a new enemy is about 500 yards away and has already armed himself. His body is secreting chakra at an incredible rate but there's something else… He's sick and if he doesn't get help he'll die in a few hours."

Everyone looked at Kakashi for their next move and he looked at Tsunade in turn. She sighed and said, "You guys go back to he village but I want Neji, and Shikamaru. Shizune I want you to take them back and have them examined for injuries. No arguments everyone we'll handle this one and I want the rest of you to go back and rest.

Everyone nodded and they went back in the direction of the leaf village. Sasuke watched Sakura to make sure she was okay but she didn't show any signs of fatigue. He went up to her and asked, "Are you sure you're alright Sakura? There's no pain anywhere?"

Sakura was surprised that he was asking because he was usually very cold and distant but something had changed had apparently changed between them. "I-I'm fine, just tired from this whole ordeal."

Sasuke was still worried but dropped the subject. Naruto talked almost all the way to the village but Kakashi saved them some trouble and knocked the guy out with his Sharingan and then had a clone carry him until they reached the village.

When they got back everyone went back to the hospital to be checked out by Shizune. After everyone had been cleared they went home and Shizune and Kakashi worked on the paperwork afterwards. Sakura walked in the direction of her home and Sasuke quietly followed her.

She stopped walking after a few minutes. She had stopped in a abandoned alleyway where no one would see them and she turned to Sasuke and asked, "What do you want Sasuke? Did I do something wrong again? I'm sorry if I-"she was cut off when Sasuke went up to her and hugged her.

She gave out a surprised gasp and Sasuke looked into her eyes and for the first time she saw warmness in his dark ebony eyes. He leaned in closer and kissed her. Sakura felt her face grow really hot and her mind went blank. She couldn't believe what was happening right now, Sasuke was kissing her and she couldn't understand why but she didn't care. The guy she was in love with was finally returning her compassion for the first time.

He pulled away after what seemed like forever and she gasped and he looked at her with an apologetic face and she didn't understand. "Sasuke what's wrong? I don't understand?"

"Sakura… I… I'm sorry. I'm sorry for everything!" He backed up and he looked her in the eyes again and this time she saw anguish and something that looked like hatred but not for her… for himself.

"What are you sorry for Sasuke?" she moved forward and placed her hand on his face and said, "You've done nothing wrong Sasuke so what are you sorry about?"

He was still looking into her eyes and the feelings reflected in his eyes changed from anguish and hatred to a deep sadness. "No Sakura, it's my fault all of this happened. It's my fault you were bit by Orochimaru and its my fault you've been put through so much pain. After the Chunin exams I realized that I never wanted to see you hurt again and I didn't want to ever see you cry especially because of something I've done to you."

Sakura finally understood why he had been acting so weird for the past months. He blamed himself for what happened to her and he blamed himself for everything else that had happened to her. She hugged him and told him, "Sasuke… Oh Sasuke none of this is your fault. I chose this for you, I wanted to protect you and at least be of some use to you because if anything happened to you I…" She looked up at him and she had tears in her eyes and she said, "I know you've heard me say it time and time again but Sasuke I love you. I love you so much that if something were to happen to you the pain would be unbearable!"

She looked into his eyes and saw his pain melt and his eyes became warm again and he leaned down and he kissed her. Sakura's face was wet with happy tears and they stayed like that for what seemed like an eternity. When they parted to breath she looked into his eyes and became very tired. Her legs felt weak and she collapsed into his arms. Her eyes became very tired and she passed out.

Sasuke picked her up and said to her unconscious form, "It's better that you didn't remember this Sakura. This will all have been a dream to you and nothing will have changed between us when you awake." He took her home and laid her down in her bed and before he left he kissed her one last time and said, "I love you too Sakura but before we can be together I need to take care of some things."

He left quietly through her window and headed for Lady Tsunade's quarters. As he left a single silent tear fell down the face of the unconscious Sakura.

Lady Tsunade's Quarters

Sasuke was waiting for Lady Tsunade to return from finishing the rest of the mission. It was still early in the afternoon but he was getting impatient but an hour later she came walking toward her office but stopped when she saw him. "Ugh… what do you want now Sasuke? I just got back from bringing home the other sound ninja and giving the horned girl to Ibiki to be interrogated."

Sasuke was caught off guard and he asked, "Why in the world would you bring both of them here Lady hokage? What will happen if they escape? They could go after Sakura!" Tsunade stepped back in surprise at his verbal attack but then smiled.

"What? What are you smiling at?"

Tsunade stepped inside her office and motioned for him to follow her and he did. She sat behind her desk and smiled at him again. "I finally understand Sasuke."

"What? What do you understand, there's nothing to understand but the situation you've created!" He was about to continue but she held up a hand and said, "I finally understand why you've been acting differently. I may have not been hokage long but long enough to know everyone's personalities and your behavior has changed. I now know why, because you made it clear moments ago."

She leaned forward and said, "You love Sakura Haruno don't you? That's why you've been so protective of her." Sasuke blushed and he quickly said, "W-what are you talking about? Why would I even like _her_ let alone love her?" She held up her hand again and he stopped and avoided eye contact with her.

"I don't think anyone else has figured this out yet, and if they have they've kept it to themselves, otherwise I would've known sooner." She got up and walked to the nearest window and turned her back to him and asked, "It's true though is it not? You love Sakura and wish for no harm to come to her am I right?"

"I-I… yes… I love her, and if you understand then you've realised by now she's still in danger! If Orochimaru finds out he will definitely kill her. I doubt he'd come to the village but he'd keep an eye on our team and come after her on a mission and either kill her or take her! What can we do to keep her safe?"

Tsunade was quiet for a minute or so but then said, "I've already made arrangements for Tayuya to be killed after she reveals everything about Orochimaru that she knows, including his current hideout. As for the other sound ninja we didn't kill him for a reason."

Now sasuke was especially curious about this sound ninja and he asked, "Why didn't you kill him?" Tsunade turned around and her eyes were full of confusion and she said, "he was extremely ill, not even a worthy opponent. The only reason I had Neji and Shikamaru stay behind was for their abilities. I needed Shikamaru's opinion and Neji's eyes. We quickly subdued him and I gave him a check up. He had a disease that I hadn't seen in awhile and I took him here to cure it."

"Wait had? So you've already healed him? What if wakes up, and escapes?"

"I wouldn't worry about that though. He was awake a few minutes ago and didn't make any move to go away. I believe we can help him. Orochimaru messed with his head so much that he almost worships him but I think we can convince him to abandon him."

Sasuke thought about it and said, "What about if we can't convince him?"

Tsunade sighed and said in a sad voice, "We'd have to kill him."

Sasuke was satisfied but then he said, "In a few years me and my team will be stronger, if Orochimaru hasn't been caught by then or killed can my team go after him?"

At this Tsunade smiled and said, "I actually plan on you guys going after him sooner than that. I know you're only genin but we will add to your team. I'll asign a chunin and also there is someone who's inquired about this and has asked to join. We will talk later though when the rest of the squad is here, for now go home and rest Sasuke and don't worry."

He bowed slightly and quickly left. Instead of going to his home he went to his real home, his clan's small village. He went to their meeting area and went to the hidden basement and read the tablet again and again. He remembered the lives of his clan and felt despair mixed with a boiling hatred. No one would take away someone he cared for ever again.

He walked out and went to the lake where he had learned his first fire style jutsu and walked out to the center of the lake. He made the hansigns and put all of his chakra into the jutsu and shouted, "FIRESTYLE! FIREBALL JUTSU!" A flaming ball the size of half the lake spewed from his mouth and lasted a few minutes before it went out in smoke. He fell to his knees in exhaustion and after resting he quickly got off the water before his miniscule amount of chakra disappeared.

He went to his current home to rest and couldn't stop thinking about Sakura on the way. As he left he was unaware of someone watching him. In the shadows of the Uchiha village was a silver haired sound ninja that wore a pair of glasses. Kabuto sneered as Sasuke exited his old village and said, "you are way to careless Sasuke and that just won't do. Time to report back to Orochimaru."

He pu his hands together to make a handsign and disappeared in a puff of smoke. Sasuke arrived at home and went to bed not realising the danger he and his teammates were in.

** Happy New Year guys! Thanks for reading, please review and give any advice that I can take into consideration! Thanks again and have a great new year! **


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16 

Sasuke was heading back home but got a bad feeling and headed back to Sakura's apartment. He rushed inside and saw a familiar silver haired ninja at the foot of Sakura's bed. He turned around at the sound of Sasuke's entrance and pulled out one of his surgical kunai then pointed it at Sakura. Sasuke became enraged and activated his sharingan, then ran at Kabuto so fast that Kabuto had no time to react to Sasuke's attack.

Kabuto came at Sasuke with a medical ninjutsu attack and struck at Sasuke's shoulders and knees, causing to collapse on the floor in pain at his join muscles being severed. Kabuto started to go towards Sakura again and Sasuke began to panic. Defying the pain his body was in he got up and ran at Kabuto with a kunai of his own but Kabuto dodged easily and made a counter attack. This time Sasuke dodged it with incredible speed and threw his kunai at Kabuto's shoulder so fast that he couldn't dodge. Kabuto winced at the pain that metal made against his flesh.

Sasuke was amazed at his speed and realized that Kabuto's movements seemed slower. Then he realized his sharingan had evolved to the third state. But even though he was stringer, his shoulders and knees were still injured severely and his body caught up with him and he fell to the floor in exhaustion and pain. Kabuto moved toward him and kneeled on the ground and said,

"Oh poor little Sasuke. Even with your sharingan you can't beat me and now you can't save her. You know this never would've had to happen if you had been given Lord Orochimaru's gift. She should've actually died from how weak she actually was, and because of her survival we actually want to bring her back to conduct some research on her. But you know what, I think I'm just going to kill her because I think it was just a fluke."

Kabuto leaned his face in closer and said, "How do you like that?"

Sasuke gathered up his chakra in his belly and performed a fire style technique right into Kabuto's face, setting the whole of his face on fire. "I think that you should never underestimate an Uchiha, Kabuto." Kabuto screamed in pain as he tried to focus enough to put out the fire and when he had finally gotten rid of it, a masklike scar was already covering his face and even with the help of medical ninjutsu, only the pain would go away leaving a permanent scar on his face.

Kabuto looked at Sasuke with fury in his eyes and he came at Sasuke, kunai in hand, and was about to strike Sasuke, where Sasuke had struck him, when a sharp white object flew right in front of Kabuto's newly burned face, almost piercing his nose. Kabuto looked at the entryway and his eyes widened in shock. There at the door, with outraised arms, was Kimimaro who Kabuto believed to be dead. Sasuke looked up at the guy who saved him in annoyance but he was truly grateful even if he was his former enemy.

Kimimaro looked towards the black haired kid collapsed on the ground and then looked at his headband, which indicated he was of the leaf village. Then he looked towards the pink haired girl who had the same headband, and the only one who was an enemy to him was Kabuto, his former doctor. Kimimaro retracted the bones in his fingers and then proceeded to extracted his femur bone and make it into a custom sword.

"Kimimaro, _what are you doing here?" _ Kabuto shouted. "_Better yet, why did you attack me? They are the enemy not me! After all Lord Orochimaru and I have done for the likes of you, you betray us and defend them! Explain yourself this instance Kimimaro!" _

Kimimaro glared at Kabuto but did not reply. Instead he quickly moved at the girl's bedside and lifted her up and in almost a second, grabbed the boy from the ground and took them to the door and laid them gently down. Then he turned towards Kabuto and finally gave an answer.

"You never truly did anything for my sake Kabuto. I was only a test subject in your eyes, and not just yours but Lord Orochimaru's as well. You both caused my illness and at first I thought it was only your fault but after Tsunade cured me she told me of Lord Orochimaru's involvement in my illness. I was ready to die for you all but you couldn't care less. The reason why I defend them is because I owe my life to the leaf village and I intend to repay my debt. They helped me even though I was their enemy, which is truly honorable."

Kabuto growled and lunged at Kimimaro, which was a mistake on his part because Kimimaro still had his own curse mark. He quickly dodged and activated a partial of the mark and struck Kabuto in the side with his femur sword but avoided vital spots. Kabuto retreated back before falling to his knees and he grasped his side as the blood began pooling out of his body. He had to hurry before he bled to death, so he quickly started healing himself but he didn't have a lot of chakra left so he was only able to staunch the bleeding.

"I won't kill you Kabuto but only for two reasons. One because even though you gave me my illness, you took me in when I was a child and saved me from a premature death. Now I have given you the same courtesy. Second, so that you may deliver your message to Lord Orochimaru, letting him know your knowledge and to tell him about me. I'm assuming it'll be your final message anyways since you've failed him what twice now?"

Kabuto went in for another attacker but tripped over a thin wire and several paper bombs flew at him from different angles and attached themselves to him. Sasuke staggered to his feet, with his right index and middle fingers upright, in the familiar hand sign. His Sharingan was still activated and he looked into Kabuto's eyes to make sure he had his undivided attention.

"You'd better leave now Kabuto, unless you do truly wish to die. I can't promise that you'll live after all of these go off. Don't come back to this village and don't come near Sakura ever again or else." Sasuke set off a single paper bomb that was on Kabuto's shoulder and Kabuto fell on all fours in pain. "I'll Kill you."

Kabuto got up as quickly as possible and left through the bedside window and left the village to report back to Orochimaru. Kimimaro looked at Sasuke whose breath was very haggard and Sasuke began to walk back to the pink haired girl and just looked at her face. She had slept through the whole thing not realizing what had happened. She had a small cut on her face from Kabuto's kunai and Sasuke looked at him.

"Your name is Kimimaro right? Thank you for helping me save her. She's not asleep technically if that's what you're thinking. I put her under a genjutsu a few hours ago so that she would forget something and put her in this forced sleep. She doesn't need to know about this and she won't need to go to the hospital just do me a favor and put her back in her bed, and let's leave before her parents get here I don't anymore trouble."

Kimimaro nodded obediently and picked up the pink haired girl called Sakura and carried her to her bed gently. He went back to Sasuke's side and remained quiet and observant. Sasuke got up and walked towards the window and was about to exit when he himself collapsed. His shoulders and knees were still severely injured and his body had finally given out. Kimimaro caught him as he blacked out. He took him to the Hokage's office, not knowing where to go, and dropped him off in front of the building where Shizune later found him and rushed him to where the hospital was.

Kimimaro returned to his own room quietly and rested. This would be his new beginning, the leaf village and becoming Sasuke's aid as he was meant to be originally.

Sasuke awoke in a hospital room and already knew what had happened, or at least he guessed. Kimimaro had saved his life again. He was annoyed that he had been saved by him twice already and did like the idea of being powerless against an enemy ninja. He heard someone coming in and rather having to talk to someone about the events he forced himself to go back asleep.

Sakura sat up straight in her bed. Her memory was fuzzy and she didn't remember anything that happened after leaving Lady Tsunade's office which was weird because it was almost sundown and it must've been several hours since she had left. She got up to walk around her room and she saw scorch marks that hadn't been there before, and there were cut marks from what was obviously a kunai. She realized more than one person had been inside her room and they weren't friends because they had been fighting.

She kept looking around and near the bottom of her nightstand she found something bleach white and sharp to an extended point. It looked like an altered knuckle bone but it couldn't be. It was too clean and way too white. She placed it on her nightstand and laid back down in her bed to try and figure out what had happened but she gave up and just went back asleep not knowing that she had almost been killed.


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

Kimimaro woke up in the hospital room he was staying in. He looked around and saw Lady Tsunade along with Sasuke and Kakashi. He sat up and stretched his body out and asked, "What do you want with me Lady Tsunade? I know you didn't save me for the heck of it. You must want something in return but I'm not quite sure what it is yet, so what is it?"

Lady Tsunade smiled and said, "So quick to the point, even after just waking up." She walked over to the bedside window, opened it up and leaned out of it for some fresh air.

"I heard from Sasuke that you came to his aid when he fought Kabuto in Sakura's room. I don't know all of the exact details yet but it seems that we're somewhat even now, aren't we Kimimaro?"

Kimimaro remained quiet but stared at Sasuke. Sasuke noticed this and became somewhat annoyed because he hated it when people stared at him for any reason. Kimimaro ignored what Lady Tsunade had said and spoke to Sasuke. "You… You're Sasuke Uchiha are you not?"

Sasuke looked at him and only flashed his Sharingan at Kimimaro so that he could get the message. Sasuke was bandaged from the fight but wasn't severely injured but Kimimaro was a different story. Sasuke knew he risked his life moving around the way he had last night and he was bitterly grateful for the help. "Yeah, I'm Sasuke of the Uchiha clan."

Kimimaro got up and kneeled at Sasuke's feet which surprised him and he said, "I am Kimimaro, originally of the village hidden in the sound. My original mission was to assist your coming to Orochimaru's and become something like your assistant or underling. If you allow it, I would still like to become your "subject" since that is the last thing I was charged with and was my purpose in life."

"So that explains why you helped me out last night. As to your request… I reject it. You no longer need to worry about Orochimaru and I don't care if that's your purpose because it seems like an awfully stupid one to me-"

Kakashi interrupted, "Sasuke be careful of your words here-"

"Let me finish Kakashi-sensei. Furthermore, now that you are free to do as you please, you can make your own path or destiny if you will. As you already know Orochimaru was only using you and you were only assigned to me because Orochimaru thought he had given me the curse mark, which he didn't. He gave it to Sakura, who now technically you would be serving. Live your life how you want I don't care, just don't interfere with my business and don't get in the way of my goals."

Sasuke walked out and left Kimimaro kneeling on the floor, who understood everything Sasuke had said to him. Kimimaro went back to his bed to lie down and closed his eyes.

Lady Tsunade sat on the edge of his bed and said, "He can be a bit grumpy but I think it's just a family trait. Now as to your earlier question, we of the leaf require information on where we might find Orochimaru. We need to know because he'll be coming back soon but only to kill that pink haired genin you saved, Sakura Haruno."

"So that you understand Lady Tsunade, what Sasuke did just now was an act of kindness. He freed me from my life of servitude in just that one moment by rejecting my offer. Even though I no longer belong to Orochimaru, I still saw fit to finish my last mission because I believed it to be the honorable thing to do. I can now seek out a life where I can be happy and find my purpose in the world. I will tell you all you need to know about Orochimaru and his hideouts and all the little details you need but in return I want you to grant me a request."

Lady Tsunade was quiet and said with the utmost seriousness, "I can't promise that I can grant what you wish for but if it is in my power I will grant it Kimimaro. Tell me what it is you desire."

"I desire now to become a ninja of the leaf. I wish to serve you and the village to repay the debt and also to show my gratitude. I don't care what level I have to start at just allow me to stay here till I can understand what my purpose in life is."

Kakashi was stunned but believed it wasn't a bad idea. Kimimaro was probably on the level of a Chunin but all the same it was up to Tsunade.

"Hmmm…. Kimimaro, how old are you?"

"I am 16 Lady Tsunade."

Lady Tsunade got up and said, "I will grant your request. You have proven your worth but I am going to place you at the lowest level until the next Chunin exam. Also if Kakashi will allow it, you will be assisting his team from now on."

Kimimaro looked at Kakashi and Kakashi nodded his approval. "We'll need your help once we start going after Orochimaru, I accept you as part of my squad Kimimaro."

"Thank you Kaka- I mean sensei." Kakashi walked out of the room leaving Tsunade and Kimimaro alone. Kimimaro looked at Lady Tsunade now and said, "Thank you and after I finish my recovery I will tell you everything I know."

Kimimaro closed his eyes and fell asleep and Tsunade walked out of his room to leave him to rest up. Sasuke was waiting outside listening the whole time and said, "So even though I told him no, he still found a way to serve me in the end, whatever."

"Sasuke keep an eye on him. I don't trust him 100% yet and Kakashi is already going to keep a watch on him. Also, go back to your room and rest, I know for a fact your injuries aren't healed yet thanks to that damned Kabuto's medical ninjutsu."

"Yes Lady Hokage. But before I go, can you send someone to Sakura's room to wipe evidence from last night's fight? I don't want her finding the scorch marks or the blood."

"I already had that taken care of. I knew she didn't need something else to worry about or anymore stress than she probably already has, now go."

They parted their ways as Tsunade went to fill out paper work and Sasuke went to rest. As they were recovering Kabuto had just reached the hideout and fearfully went into Orochimaru's chambers to report back to him. "My Lord, I have returned from the leaf village."

"So what have you to report my dear Kabuto?"

Kabuto hesitated but then said, "Our elite, the sound ninja four were defeated by the leaf ninja."

Orochimaru was silent but the air grew strong with his anger and seeping chakra.

"And what of Kimimaro and Sasuke?"

Kabuto inched back in fear and said, "Well you see my Lord-"

"SPIT IT OUT ALREADY KABUTO! I HAVEN'T THE PATIENCE FOR YOUR STUMBLING TONGUE!"

"Sasuke never arrived because a large group of ninja tracked them down and retrieved him. They had, from what I could gather two teams of 6 ninja, 11 of those being genin and one Chunin plus Kakashi and Shizune joined them along with Tsunade herself."

The room became even more cold and Kabuto could actually feel Orochimaru's anger and he began to sweat. "This is unacceptable Kabuto! What of Kimimaro? He out of all of them should not have failed! Where is he?"

"He… defected sir. Also there's something else you should know. About the matter of Sasuke Uchiha… He is not the one you gave the curse mark too, it was his teammate Sakura Haruno. She survived the bite, and received the special medicine that you made that prevents the curse mark from eating her alive. When I tried to retrieve her to bring her to you, Sasuke butted in and protected her. He injured me but wasn't hard to take care of. That's when Kimimaro stepped in my Lord. He protected both Sasuke and the girl."

Orochimaru stood up and said, "That traitor will pay in time Kabuto, in a few hours he will die."

"Actually… he won't. It seems Tsunade cured his illness that we gave him."

Orochimaru lashed out at a nearby servant in anger. "You've disappointed me greatly Kabuto, but you can redeem yourself. You will go back to the leaf village and this time you will successfully steal away that girl. If you fail me again well… I'm sure you can imagine what will happen to you. Now leave!"

Kabuto left the hideout once more and set off for the hidden leaf, hell bent on succeeding.

**Sorry for not updating, I've had a lot of stuff going on and I would have updated sooner but I haven't had access to a computer for awhile. My apologies for the wait, I hope you'll still continue reading my stuff and I appreciate any suggestions and reviews **


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

It's been a week since Kimimaro joined Team Kakashi. In that time he had grown to understand more about life and learned it's not about killing people. Sasuke had kept an eye on him just in case though, all the while Sakura was still clueless as to what had almost happened to her. Throughout this time Kabuto had been making his way to the Leaf village once more. He would've been there by now but he kept being stalled by his own wounds. He was in mid recovery from his previous fight, and he dared not stay at the hideout lest he unleash Orochimaru's wrath upon him.

"_This is ridiculous! I should have been able to heal these wounds by now so what is the deal?!" _thought Kabuto. He jumped through the trees and was nearing the end of his journey but then he stopped. He was sensing chakra… One that was familiar to him, having experimenting with this chakra for nigh on 10 years.

"Kimimaro." Kabuto said this with a murderous anger in his voice. He climbed higher in the huge oak tree he was currently situated in, so as to get a better view. He had just reached the top when he saw them pass through. Kakashi, Naruto, Sasuke, and the pink one. Sakura. Then tailing them was Kimimaro, same clothes, same person, but…. Somehow different. He looked happy; no he didn't look it he was actually smiling; laughing with the lowly genin he was with. He was also wearing a leaf headband, which made Kabuto even angrier than he was before.

Looked like they were going on a mission but he knew they wouldn't take longer than a couple of hours. They were just Genin after all. He would wait and set up traps to separate them so that he could go after the girl when she was all alone. He laughed to himself as he planned his revenge on the Genin and Kimimaro.

**With Team Kakashi**

I was running alongside Sasuke and Kimimaro while Naruto was ahead with Kakashi sensei. It was somewhat awkward having Kimimaro on the team and I didn't know all the details, which annoyed me because I felt as clueless as Naruto now. All I knew was the basics, Kimimaro became a turncoat, joined us to be watched by Kakashi. I know there's more to the story but I'm going to leave it be for now.

"Kakashi sensei, where is the location of our next mission again?" asked Kimimaro. I also thought it was weird that he called him his sensei, even though he was obviously on a Chunin level, and he was at least 3 years older than us. "_He shouldn't be on our team" I thought to myself. _At times when he thought I couldn't see him or wasn't looking, I caught him staring at me which really creeped me out. I would have told Sasuke about it, just to ask what I should do but… Well since Kimimaro joined us, he's seemed to be distracted and completely out of it. He was never focused, even on missions which isn't like him at all. I was worried about him but I just left him alone because if I asked what was wrong, I knew he wouldn't answer.

"We're heading off to the Demon country. Our mission is to locate a group of bandits who have been terrorizing the villages of the country. Once we locate them we take them out by any means necessary. If we have to, we may have to kill some. I'm not sure what it will be like yet. Just keep your eyes and ears open."

"Right."

We continued in silence until we reached the Demon country. We stopped for a lunch break after we crossed the border. Naruto went to get cooking water, and Kakashi sensei went to find us some fish and fire wood. I was left to set up our camp with Kimimaro and Sasuke, and let me tell you it was one of the most uncomfortable experiences of my life. Kimimaro broke the silence after we had finished setting up by saying, "I'll check the perimeter until Kakashi and Naruto get back." He left without saying anything else and I breathed a sigh of relief.

"What's wrong Sakura? Do you not like Kimimaro?"

I looked at Sasuke like he was crazy. _**Inner voice-"Cannot believe he just said that! He's been such an introvert for the past week! CHAA"**_

"No, I'm fine Sasuke. It was just a bit awkward and tense around Kimimaro. I just haven't adjusted to having him on the team quite yet. What about you? You've been quieter than usual Sasuke, is it because of Kimimaro?"

He hesitated in answering me and I thought I had guessed right but then he replied.

"No… I just have some things on my mind. It's the anniversary today…" He trailed off and didn't finish. I didn't know what he meant but I let it pass.

"What do you think of Kimimaro though Sasuke? I can't understand how he came to our team and the whole back story." Sasuke put what he had down, stood up, and walked over to me. I looked up at him, his face was clean of any emotions that might betray his thoughts. "S-Sasuke?"

"I think we can trust him for now. But, it wasn't a good decision to add him to our team. We're now a 5 man squad. This is different then when we were retrieving you, that was temporary. This is semi-permanent, because he is now part of our team. Just deal with it for now, the Hokage has her reasons for doing this I'm sure."

He was still looking me in the eyes, and as I looked into his, I knew. He was keeping something from me, something about Kimimaro that Naruto and I didn't know about. Did he not trust me? Why was he keeping secrets from us. Had I not earned his respect and trust after the Orochimaru incident? Was that not enough for him? I was hurt and I don't even think he realizes it.

I reached out for his hand and took hold of it, he didn't retreat from my touch and I was surprised.

"Sasuke… I-" I was about to question him further when I was interrupted by a voice that seemed to come from the surrounding trees. It was loud and echoed across the camp we set up.

"Well look at that, I think we just stumbled upon two young lovers!"

I looked around into the trees and started to panic. Everyone was gone except for Sasuke and I, what would we do if we were attacked by the enemy? I must've started shaking because Sasuke squeezed my hand before letting go. I snapped out of it, and pulled out several shuriken, and Sasuke pulled out some of his kunai.

"Who are you? What do you want?" Sasuke shouted into the air.

Laughter. There was laughter sounding everywhere and not just one person, several, it sounded like hundreds of men laughing. I threw my shuriken in every which direction but the laughter continued. "We are the demons who walk this land and take what is ours, which is everything. We are the demons of hell sent from Hades himself to terrorize this land! Know and fear us!"

Suddenly we were surrounded, and at what I had thought we hundreds of men were only 6 men. But they weren't really men quite yet, they looked about Kimimaro's age, 15-17 by the looks of them. But they didn't look like normal teenagers. They were about 2 feet taller than me easily, but they were… well scary. I'd never felt true fear but I felt it when I looked at them. Maybe they were demons. They closed in Sasuke and I. I started to panic and this time Sasuke wouldn't be able to calm me because right then, half of them attacked Sasuke. I tried to help him but the other three grabbed my arms and held me back.

They had tied Sasuke up and had started beating him. I don't know how many times I screamed his name. I was crying now and I searched for the power within me to save him but it wouldn't come. The curse mark seemed to not be working and I started struggling against their grip till one of them held a kunai to my neck. Where was everyone?

They finally stepped away from Sasuke, who looked so broken. Blood covered his face and his body looked limp. "Sa-sasuke? SASUKE! TALK TO ME!" I started crying even more. Even after receiving such an awesome power, even if by mistake, I was useless to him.

"S-Sakura…. Don't worry about m-me. Get away from here…" He looked up at me and his eyes became blank and I stopped breathing. They started laughing again and one said, "Looks like we killed him. Sorry girl but looks like your boyfriend is dead."

I stopped struggling, unable to move. The tears had also stopped. Two let go of me but one, which looked about 16 kept a hold of me. They started taking Sasuke's supplies and then looked at me. One asked, "Now what do we do with the pretty pink haired girl guys?"

"GET RID OF HER!" Most shouted except one. The one that held me. He started laughing and said, "I don't know guys, she seems awful pretty it'd be such a waste to kill such a fine figure. I think I'll keep her for _my _amusement."

The men shuffled about and then one mumbled, "She'd be better off dead with how you treat your amusements." His body fell to the ground a moment later, dead. The man who was going to take me was obviously the leader.

"Any other objections? Good, get rid of his body."

None of the men argued, they let him take me and I didn't struggle. I was still staring at Sasuke. They were leaving, with me I tow, when Sasuke moved and looked up at me and his eyes widened because he saw that the guy holding me was dragging me with him. Sasuke started moving but one of the guy's threw a kunai at his shoulder and then right into his leg. Sasuke screamed in pain and I started struggling once more, tears fresh, and as I did so my headband fell off and the last thing I saw was a bloodied, beaten Sasuke before being knocked out by my capture.

**A few hours later**

Sasuke was still unconscious when Kakashi arrived back with a beaten up Naruto and an injured Kimimaro. They ran to Sasuke once they saw him and cut off the ropes that bound him. They laid him down on a bedspread and waited for him to wake up but he didn't. Naruto was seriously worried but Kakashi was handling it.

"Naruto go get water but use one of your shadow clones this time. Kimimaro, you'd better sit, you've got a nasty injury there. What happened to you?"

As Naruto's clone went to get water, Kimimaro told of how he was attacked moments after leaving to check the perimeter. 6 had attacked him, and when he used his Kekkei Genkai, he quickly ran out of chakra, not to mention when he was critically injured when they had slashed at his right leg, he had sent almost all of his chakra there to heal the cut artery and stop the bleeding. He was subdued after that and they had only attacked his arms and legs so he couldn't use his jutsu. His right arm broken in two places, left arm dislocated, right leg still slashed up, and left leg beaten.

He was in as bad of shape as Sasuke, but he had some chakra back now. With his powers he fixed his arms but his legs needed bandaging. Kakashi explained that he was also attacked by 6 but he got rid of them quickly and then he found Naruto and helped him defeat the 6 that attacked him. Naruto's clone arrived back with the water and then disappeared in a puff of smoke. They washed off the blood on Sasuke's arms, legs and face. Then they bandaged him, and then Kimimaro, still Sasuke did not awake but now Naruto was focused in on Kakashi and Kimimaro.

Kakashi looked at both of them and said, "When I fought mine enemies disappeared in a puff of smoke, as did Naruto's. I think we are dealing with 6 actual bandits who can also use ninjutsu. So in reality we are dealing with a group of ninjas who can use the shadow clone jutsu."

"What can we do sensei?! Hey wait…" Naruto looked around and then said, "Where's Sakura?!" Kakashi hadn't even noticed for some reason, and Kimimaro froze. He was supposed to protect Sakura and serve her, but she was nowhere in sight. Had he failed?

Sasuke stirred and opened his eyes to look at his teammates. "They've taken her… They were going to kill us… but one said he wanted her for his amusement…" He tried getting up but was pushed back down by Kakashi.

"You need to rest Sasuke. You're in no position to get up, not after the beating you got. We need to find Sakura and before the sun sets here. First you two: Sasuke and Kimimaro. You will rest for the next couple of hours." Kakashi got up and neither ninja complained, and as Kakashi walked toward the edge of camp, he saw Sakura's headband and picked it up. He bit his thumb and summoned Pakkun.

"We will track Sakura by her headband guys. Pakkun please get her scent and help us track her."

As soon as Pakkun got the scent he went running off and Kakashi returned to his students and sat down. "I'm sorry guys. I didn't think this mission would be so difficult, I was told it was a C rank. They told me the only reason it was C rank was because of the bandits. We weren't informed of how strong our enemy was. This is more like a B rank if not higher. This is my fault, that you were hurt and Sakura taken."

Naruto stood up and shouted, "None of this was your fault sensei! It's ours! We should have been more prepared, we should have been able to take mere shadow clones down! We're weak!"

"Whoa Naruto calm down. Alright I get it but I don't think the ones that attacked Sasuke and Sakura were clones. I think they were the real deal, but don't worry we'll get her back and we'll take them down." Then in a more serious, deadly voice he said," And we'll make them regret taking the best genin kunoichi and our comrade, isn't that right guys?" They all shouted with approval and Pakkun arrived back to say he had found their hideout and Sakura. They immediately set out, even though Kimimaro and Sasuke were injured they came much to Kakashi's disapproval.

**With Sakura**

"_Where am I? It's so dark I can't see!" I thought to myself. _Suddenly a light turned on and I saw that I was tied up vertically to a wall. There were ropes binding my wrists and ankles, and those ropes were anchored by metal rods. But I also seemed to be on some kind of wheel, and that's when I knew I was on some sort of torture device. And in the door way was the guy who had decided to keep me. He was holding several shuriken in his hands. I tried using my cursed chakra because I knew that I didn't stand a chance without it but I couldn't feel any chakra coming from my curse mark.

"I'm going to have fun with you, it's not everyday I get to capture a kunoichi and get to play with her. You'll see a kunai to your right, shuriken to your left, and then senbon above and below you. This is how the game goes, I spin you and if you land on one of the 3 things I just mentioned that's what I get to throw at you. Just like a game of darts but you are the moving target. If don't land on one of the weapons, then I cut loose one of the ropes that bind you, and if all 4 happen to be released, then you too shall be released. Fair enough right? I thought so too."

I would've said something but I had been gagged. He spun me so fast that I began feeling sick. My head landed on senbon, below or above I couldn't tell. "Senbon needles it is." I heard them whistle through the air, and then pain so much pain, coursing through my whole body.

"Oh I forgot to tell you, the senbon below I dipped in poison, and the senbon above have the antidote soaked into them. This makes it more fun, because if you want the antidote you still have to go through some pain." He started laughing maniacally and then said, "The poison won't kill you right away, but you'll be in pain for a couple of days. I'll be back in 5 minutes, each time I hit you with senbon I break for that long but if I hit you with shuriken or kunai I'll just keep going."

He walked out without saying a word. This was my chance, I focused my chakra to my arms, this was also where the senbon had struck me. I used my chakra to force the senbon to come out, this would at least stop the poison from continually entering my body. I would've used my now empowered arms to break free of my binds but I noticed that the ropes had paper bombs. If I broke them with my chakra I would have no limbs left.

Apparently the 5 minutes were up because he came back in. The poison caused me so much pain that I could barely stand it. He spun me again making the pain worse, and thankfully I landed upright on the senbon that would cure me. He muttered something like, "You just got lucky." He threw the senbon at me which still caused me pain, but I could feel the poison dissipating throughout my body. He spun me again and he landed on shuriken.

"Finally!" He must've thrown at least 20 shuriken, which cut every limb on me but only grazing me. I screamed in pain but it was muffled. The next time he spun me he landed on the kunai, and when he threw these the stayed implanted. 2 in my left shoulder, 1 in my gut, and 2 in each of my legs. The gag fell out at this point and I could hear myself screaming in agony.

He must have spun me again because he threw senbon at me and I had a feeling these ones were poisoned. After that I must have landed on two empty spaces because he cut my legs free of their binds. I had no chance of escaping and after the next few spins I passed out.

**What felt like hours later**

My head was hanging, and I had several senbon and kunai implanted into my body. I felt like a bloodied human porcupine, and unfortunately for me I still had the poison flowing through me. _Is this how I will die? Useless and weak? _ I began crying because I didn't want to die this way, I wanted to be useful to my team and to prove to them all I could protect myself because I was strong.

Not only could I not protect myself, but I was still weak even after receiving the curse mark. Then I heard them, screams of the bandits. My torturer walked in and locked the door, and he looked somewhat panicked. The screams of the bandits fell quiet, and it all became eerily silent which was broken by an explosion that took down the door.

The first thing I saw were red eyes, two pairs of them. One I recognized and one I didn't. There was Sasuke's Sharingan and then the other pair of eyes had slits in them not unlike that of a cat or snake. The smoke revealed the two to be Sasuke and Naruto, but it didn't really look like Naruto. He looked beastlike with his hair ragged, huge canines, and claws. I could also feel a murderous chakra coming from both of my comrades.

They looked at the last bandit and attacked him at once. They stepped away from him and I knew he was dead. They both looked at me with horror. I must've looked worse than I had originally thought. Sasuke spoke first to break the silence.

"Naruto, go and tell Kakashi-sensei we found her, and that we got the last guy as well. Bring them back here afterwards. I'll take care of Sakura, don't worry."

Naruto nodded and left, and Sasuke ran to me. He cut the remaining ropes and carefully put me on the ground. He pulled out the senbon and kunai that were located all over my body. He must've noticed I had been poisoned because he quietly asked me, "Do you know if he had an antidote Sakura?"

I nodded and said, "He had soaked some of his senbon in it. I grabbed a senbon that had clear liquid dropping from it. "He should have some on him… But you'll need to inject it into to me Sasuke…"

He quickly found some and carefully stabbed me with the senbon he had found. Soon I felt no pain from the poison. I looked up at him and smiled, and whispered, "Thank you for saving me Sasuke." I was surprised to feel something wet fall on my face and I saw that his eyes had some tears that were leaking out.

He quickly wiped them off but I reached for him and he took my hand with both of his. "I'm sorry… that I wasn't strong enough… Sasuke…" I blacked out once more.

**Sasuke's POV from this point**

I watched her head as it rolled to one side and panicked for a quick second but then I saw she was breathing still. I felt angry with myself that I had allowed this to happen. I grabbed some bandages and began cleaning her wounds and bandaging them. Her legs and arms were almost completely wrapped in bandages. I quickly began bandaging her stomach but she was still bleeding pretty bad and if she didn't home within the next day or so… she would die.

Sensei walked in and knew just by looking at her what I knew would happen he quickly picked her up and told Naruto and Kimimaro we were leaving right away but he needed someone to deliver the bandits to the village nearby. Kimimaro volunteered as did Naruto. They left immediately as did sensei and I.

"Sensei… how fast do you think we can go without exhausting ourselves?"

He looked at me and thought. "Well… if we go almost full speed we should reach the village in about four hours not including when we would need to change Sakura's bandages. She'll be fine though, I swear it to you."

I nodded and we both put in bursts of speed, using our chakra to speed up gradually. We reached the village in about 5 or 6 hours, we had stopped 3 times to change Sakura's bandages. We went straight to the hospital where she was sent to the emergency room. Naruto and Kimimaro arrived at the hospital about an hour or so into Sakura's operation. Naruto was loud and obnoxious but I knew he was just as worried about her as I was.

I walked out to the roof for some fresh air and to wait but I made a motion for Kimimaro to follow me. I told sensei where we were going and he decided to take Naruto somewhere to quickly eat because a nurse said that they would be in there for the next few hours, so she told them to eat.

When Kimimaro and I reached the roof I immediately glared at him. He knelt to one knee and I shouted, "Where were when we needed you?! If you had done a quick perimeter sweep, Sakura wouldn't be in critical condition!"

Kimimaro stood up and said, "I told you already what happened. When I use my Kekkei Genkai for anything but fighting, my chakra is quickly depleted. Especially with the level of their attacks."

I was so angry my Sharingan was activated in response to my rage. "Yeah I get that but what about your curse mark? Wouldn't that have given you your much needed chakra?! Well Kimimaro, what have you to say about that?!"

Kimimaro looked down and something that resembled frustration and confusion morphed his face.

"Well Kimimaro?! Answer me!"

"My curse mark wasn't working; or rather I couldn't feel any power coming from it when we were in the Demon country. I thought I was imagining things when we first crossed the borders, but when I tried using it, I knew there was some kind of magic or weird chakra in those woods that made it impossible to use the chakra of the curse mark."

My Sharingan disappeared when I heard that and I was shocked. What could have caused this? Was it really just some weird chakra or something else…

"When Sakura recovers, I'm sure she'll say the same. Otherwise she would have been able to escape and find us on her own." Kimimaro looked at me and said, "I really am sorry. I failed at what you tasked me with Sasuke."

I put aside my thoughts on the Demon Country and said, "I don't remember ever giving you a task Kimimaro. I remember just saying you choose your own path, just make sure it's the right one. Now let's go back, she may be out of the ER by now."

We walked back but she wasn't out yet so we bought some rice balls and sushi for our brunch. She wasn't out for another couple of hours after we had eaten. Shizune had been the one who had been operating on her, she came to us and said, "She probably won't wake up for a few more hours but that's a good sign. Her body is helping her recover after what she went through and Sakura should be fine after a couple days of recuperation."

The nurses took Sakura to her hospital room where she rested, and Kakashi-sensei left to make a final report. Naruto went with Kimimaro to help him find a place to stay, but I stayed behind. I sat next to her side until she would wake up. I even brought her roses to put in a vase next to her bed.

I eventually fell asleep but when I someone's hand on my face I quickly woke up. She was sitting up with her hands on my face and a kind look in her eyes. "Sakura…"

**Back to Sakura's POV**

I woke up and I smelled roses, I looked at the table next to my bed and saw someone had put a vase of roses there. I sat up and then felt some pressure on me. I looked to my right, and it was Sasuke, he was sleeping. He must've stayed the whole time I was here, I felt so happy. I knew he stayed probably to make sure I had been alright and to let the rest of the team know I was okay. But still, he made me happy being here.

I don't know why but I caressed his hair and then his face and he woke up and looked at me and said, "Sakura…"

"Yes, Sasuke?"

Sasuke then completely woke up and said, "Sakura are you feeling alright? Does it hurt anywhere?"

I was so surprised that I didn't know what to say. Sasuke was showing care…Again and for me! "Um yeah…Yes I'm fine Sasuke, I actually feel a lot better now. Thank you for saving me…That guy was a freak; he had some kind of mental issue. He enjoyed torturing his prisoners. If not for you and Naruto… well no matter, we're all back home now!"

I smiled to dispel any doubts he may have had and then he asked, "Sakura, when we were in the Demon country, did your curse mark work at all? Kimimaro said he was unable to activate his."

"No it was weird, I couldn't sense any chakra coming from my curse mark at all."

Sasuke stood up and started walking towards the door and before he left he said, "I have to go now and tell the others you're awake. Get some rest and tomorrow I'll come back with the rest of the team."

He walked out before I could even say goodbye. I lied back down in my bed thinking about my next move. I fell asleep before long and in the days to come I would need to figure out what I needed to do to finally become an asset to my team.

**Thanks for reading my new version of Chapter 18. I'm sorry about the previous one but I believe this one is better. Please give me some reviews! I'll be sure to update again soon!**


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

**With Kabuto**

I couldn't believe I had let them pass me and with Sakura in tow! She was injured too! It was the perfect opportunity to grab her and I let it pass me by! I would've been able to take her too since they wouldn't be able to fight or defend very well with Sakura injured so badly.

"That's it! I'm done trying to be careful about this! I'm taking Sakura with me and this time I will succeed!"

I ran off, full speed ahead to the Leaf village and reached it in the next couple of hours. I was about to run straight to the hospital when I thought of something better.

"Shadow clone jutsu!"

I summoned one clone and had it transform into a random looking leaf ninja. We nodded at each other already knowing what the plan was and I sat down to wait for my clone to complete the plan. Clone Kabuto ran to the hospital and went to Sakura's room. Unfortunately she was awake.

She looked at him in freight, "Who-Who are you? Why are you in here?"

The clone Kabuto walked to her bedside, smiled evilly and quickly knocked her out Sakura out with a cloth containing chloroform.

"Sakura, you're coming with me whether you want to or not."

The clone Kabuto created one more shadow clone and had him transform into Sakura. The first clone picked up the real Sakura and had the fake Sakura lie down in the hospital bead. The clone Kabuto opened the window and ran up the hospital wall with Sakura in his arms. Once he reached the roof he jumped to the closest tree and quickly went back to the real Kabuto.

The clone handed Sakura over to Kabuto and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Finally… Now I can go back to Lord Orochimaru." Then I ran in the direction of the lair that Lord Orochimaru had recently moved to and didn't look back at the village.

**With Sasuke**

Sakura had now been sleeping most of the day and because Team 7 couldn't just stop doing missions, Lady Tsunade sent us off on missions around the village so that we wouldn't be too far away from Sakura in case anything happened. Naruto, of course, had been his usual annoying self but he was a bit different. He would randomly get quiet all of a sudden and I knew he had Sakura on his mind. He had actually just gone quiet again while picking up some litter. We were just about done with an assignment to clean up 5 rivers near the west of the village.

I turned to look at him and said, "Naruto!"

He quickly looked up and said, "What do you want Sasuke? I was concentrating on finishing our mission!"

I snorted which made him angry and said, "You were not, you were thinking about Sakura again weren't you?"

Naruto blushed and looked away. Kakashi was underneath a tree reading a make out paradise book like usual and Kimimaro was farther up the river at the time. "Hey sensei, after this river we'll be done right?"

Kakashi looked up and saw we were almost finished and said, "Oh. Yeah I guess." He went back to his book and Naruto immediately went to work picking up trash and in the next 10 minutes we were both panting on the ground from how fast we had worked to finish cleaning the river. Kimimaro offered to carry our picks so we gave them to him.

Kakashi stood up, put his book away, and said, "Alright guys good work today, we can head back to the village now. We just have to dispose of the trash, how about instead of adding to the trash heaps we just get rid of this stuff with a jutsu, a fire jutsu." He looked at me and I nodded.

We put the trash in a pile away from the trees and I made the hand signs. "Firestyle! Fire ball jutsu!" I made a smaller ball of fire than usual but the trash was incinerated and we ran back to the village. Kakashi went off to the Hokage's office to give his report and the rest went to the hospital to visit Sakura, including Kimimaro.

On the walk there, Kimimaro was quiet but observant, and Naruto was bragging about this jutsu he was learning and I of course was ignoring him which of course made him even more annoying. We go to the hospital and checked in, then we quickly walked to Sakura's room. We walked inside and saw her sleeping there, and we were just about to go to her side when Kimimaro jumped in front of us, hands outstretched as if ready to use his Kekkai Genkai.

Naruto tried pushing him aside to get to Sakura and fell over. "You jerk! Move over we came here to see Sakura not kill her!" He stood up and pulled out a kunai. I did the same and said, "Naruto's right, now move aside or we'll make you Kimimaro."

He didn't move but he said, "Sasuke, that isn't Sakura. Use your Sharingan I'm sure you'll be able to tell."

I lowered my kunai, as did Naruto, and activated my Sharingan. I saw a cloaking over Sakura and realized in a panic, that it really wasn't her. "No, it can't be! She was supposed to be safe!" He through his kunai at the fake which tried moving but it got him in the shoulder and broke the transformation jutsu. It was revealed to be Kabuto again and I became enraged and leapt towards him but Kimimaro stopped me.

I was annoyed but grateful because Kabuto had activated his medical ninjutsu that would've put me in a hospital bed. Naruto however was more enraged than me, and had started leaking that weird chakra again. His murderous intent was palpable and Kabuto even looked a bit scared.

Naruto crouched down on all fours and growled, "Where is she you traitor?! Where's Sakura?!"

Kabuto laughed and said, "It's too late! She's already hours away probably almost with Lord Orochimaru by now!"

I was about to attack him but Naruto lunged at him cloaked in red chakra and Kabuto disappeared in a puff of smoke. He screamed in frustration, "DAMN IT! He was just a shadow clone! Sakura!"

I backed up, just as angry as Naruto but told Kimimaro, "Stay here and look for any trace of Kabuto but also calm Naruto down. I'm going to Kakashi."

He nodded and walked to Naruto who lunged at him in anger and Kimimaro used his arm bones to form an unbreakable shield, and I walked out before I saw anything else. I raced through the halls, much to the displeasure of the nurses, and ran even faster once outside and quickly got to the Hokage's office. I could hear people talking, one being my sensei and ignored it. I bursted through the office door and both Kakashi and Lady Tsunade looked at me in surprise and Lady Tsunade looked angry.

"Sasuke Uchiha! We're discussing something important right now go and wait ou-"

I cut her off and looked at Kakashi, "She's gone sensei. Sakura's gone."

Tsunade stood up and Kakashi's eye widened even more and he said, "What? How?"

I quickly spoke to them both, "It's Kabuto again, he took her while we were away and left a clone in her place! Kimimaro's looking for traces of him but we need to hurry. Sensei, he's taken her to Orochimaru."

Kakashi let out a grunt and said, "We _just_ got her back here. Geez he could not have picked a worse time for us." He looked to Lady Tsunade and she nodded and told him,

"Go track him down but wait for me to send some back up. Especially if he takes her all the way to Orochimaru. I'll probably send a team like Kurenai's but get going." Kakashi nodded and ran out with me and we headed quickly back to the hospital room, where Kimimaro had obviously just calmed down Naruto. Naruto immediately went to Kakashi and I walked to Kimimaro, Naruto was cut off by Kakashi and he told him not to worry.

I noticed something on the floor by the bed. It was a cloth, I went over and picked it up. "He Kakashi sensei, I found a cloth and I'm almost positive it's not Sakura's."

Kakashi walked over while Naruto ran to my side, he smelled the cloth and said, "It smells kina funny…" He passed out on the floor. None of us made an effort to catch him though. I got really angry and almost kicked him.

"What a moron."

Kakashi moved Naruto out of the way and said, "Well as dumb as that was at least we know how he got her out here quietly. He obviously cloaked the cloth in chloroform and covered her nose and mouth till she passed out." He made some hand signs and said, "Summoning jutsu!"

Where his hands hand been placed over there was now a small, very small, as in I could squash it with my foot, dog.

" 'Sup Kakashi."

And it talked too.

**Alright guys, I'm really grateful for the continued reads. I've been extremely busy lately and I know I keep being late with updates, but I've just finished high school and have been working on college entrances and starting a new job. I really hope you'll keep reading and I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I will try to update it within the next couple of weeks. Again thank you guys so much for your support, please keep reviewing! **


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20**

"'Sup Kakashi," Said the tiny dog.

"Long time no see Pakkun, we need your assistance with tracking down Sakura. She's been taken by the enemy."

I'd forgotten that Kakashi could summon ninja hounds. This was perfect! We could start tracking her down immediately! I don't know what Orochimaru has planned for Sakura but I sure as hell knew I was going to stop him at all costs.

Kakashi picked Naruto up and looked at Kimimaro and I, "We're going after her immediately, so be ready. We'll be splitting into teams of two once we find them. Now let's move out!"

We left the village once more to locate Sakura, and this time we would finish the job so that we wouldn't have to deal with this crap anymore. Pakkun was leading us south of the village towards the edge on the fire nation. Naruto woke up eventually and Kakashi stopped us to lecture him about the importance of using his head. Once we finished our short break we continued on further until we had crossed a flat plain. On the other side of this plain was an eerie forest and Naruto stopped.

I looked at him as did the others and he looked, almost frightened. That's not normal.

"Naruto what's wrong?" asked Kakashi.

"There's something not right about this forest… I think… I think this is the same as the last forest, where we were taking care of those bandits."

I looked at Kimimaro and he looked worried as well but he was not scared. So I turned to him and said, "There's only one way to know. Kimimaro try to activate your curse mark just inside the forest line."

He nodded and quickly ran inside the forest. Nothing seemed to happen and when he came back he said, "I think that this is the same forest we entered before sensei."

I was getting annoyed. I spoke to all of them saying, "This shouldn't matter! We came to retrieve Sakura, and this forest only affects weird chakras."

Kakashi nodded and said, "He's right guys, if you want to continue relying on your other types of chakra, you'll get nowhere in the ninja world. Now let's go!"

We continued onward and entered the forest. I'm sure I wasn't the only one who felt it, but there was a definite change in the air. As if, the forest itself was filled with chakra. I could tell that Kimimaro, and Naruto were extremely uncomfortable. I only hoped that the forest only affected their chakras and wouldn't do anything else.

Within another hour we stopped to rest, and I noticed that the sun was starting to set. We had been going nonstop for the a few hours now and the day was just about over. That meant that Sakura had been with the enemy for at least half the day now.

"We're going to camp here for tonight guys," said Kakashi.

I was about to argue but knew it was the right choice to make. It was almost dark and we still had to wait for our back up team. Naruto, of course, didn't understand his choice at all. So of course, he stood up and started shouting his head off at our sensei.

"But Kakashi-sensei! Sakura is probably with Orochimaru right now! We need to rescue her as fast as we can! We shouldn't be stopping now!"

Kakashi sighed and looked at Naruto in irritation. "Naruto. The sun is setting and we need rest. Just as you said, Sakura is probably already in Orochimaru's lair which means we need to be extremely careful. Remember you're all just genin."

Naruto was still upset and tried to continue arguing but Kakashi brought the cloth we had found in the hospital out, and knocked Naruto out with it. I was too stunned to even say anything.

"Well that takes care of that." Kakashi looked us and smiled, "What's wrong guys?"

I couldn't even speak but Kimimaro finally spoke and asked, "Are you sure that was necessary sensei?"

"Hmmm… well at least he's being quiet."

Wow. Well anyways we built a small fire and quickly ate a meal while Naruto remained unconscious. Once we had finished we started talking about what to do next.

"Once our back up team arrives we'll head on in to Orochimaru's hideout. We'll split up from there and search for Sakura. I'll summon my ninja hounds to go with each group that way we'll be able to find each other once one of us finds Sakura." Kakashi reached into his bag and grabbed 4 long distance communicators. "We'll use these to communicate with one another. When we go inside, don't try and be a hero. If you run into Orochimaru, you run away and contact one of us jonin to come to you. Got it?"

We nodded and while Kakashi took the first watch shift, we went to sleep.

**With Sakura**

I woke up in a room with very dim lighting. I sat up and tried walking towards the door but there was a cuff chained to the bed and my left ankle. I should be scared but I knew they would come for me. I would live and we wouldn't have to deal with this anymore.

Suddenly, Kabuto came in and I jumped back.

"So you're finally awake Sakura, about time I was just about to come and force you to wake up."

"Wh-where am I?"

"None of your concern. Now come on, we're going to see lord Orochimaru. He's been very anxious to exper- I mean meet you."

Now I was scared, I couldn't move and Kabuto came to me. He took a key out and unlocked my chain. He pushed me out of the room and led me through a maze like floor and we finally stopped in front of a set of large double doors. I was terrified, I could feel Orochimaru's sinister chakra choking me and I knew that what I was feeling now was true fear.

Kabuto knocked on the door and I heard his voice for the first time in a long time. "Enter." He had only said one word but it was enough to make me want to start crying, but I wouldn't do that. I would stay strong through this fear because I knew my team would come for me. Kabuto led me inside and it must have been a very large room because we walked for the longest time before stopping. Right as we stopped several candles along the side of the room lit up simultaneously.

I saw him sitting upon a throne like chair and that was all I saw. His snake like eyes captured my attention and I didn't look away, scared that the moment I did it would be all over. And then he spoke once more.

"Well hello my dear, and welcome to your new home."

**With Sasuke**

"Sasuke wake up. It's time." Kakashi woke me up and then moved on to Kimimaro and Naruto. I sat up groggy and tried opening my eyes all the way. I heard other voices that weren't here before and I stood up and looked around. Our backup team had arrived and of course it had to be them.

"There's no time to be sleeping around team 7! Use the power of youth to get up and ready! Only the power of youth will save Sakura!"

Of course it had team be Gai's team. My eyebrow twitched in annoyance as his disciple Lee chimed in as well. I still couldn't believe I had lost to him. Ridiculous, and embarrassing. But at least they had Neji. Him I could deal with. So now we had our back up team and could be on our way. I thought to myself, _"Hold on Sakura. We're coming for you."_


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter 21**

I was very annoyed at this point. Lee and Gai sensei had been doing stretches in the name of the power of youth for about 10 minutes now and we needed to make a strategy. Kakashi had tried several times to interrupt them as had the rest of our team but Naruto. I looked at him and he was about ready to explode.

"Err… WILL YOU GUYS SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO KAKASHI SENSEI! YOU'RE WASTING THE TIME WE HAVE TO FIND SAKURA!" said Naruto, right on and Lee fell over in surprise at his shouting and Kakashi took the opportunity to jump in and speak.

"Alright team Gai. Here's what we're doing. We'll be splitting into groups and Gai and myself will be going on our own. Lee, you'll be with Kimimaro. Neji you'll be with Tenten and Sasuke with Naruto. No arguments these groups will work best. Now we'll be communicating with these long distance communicators. If you run into Kabuto, or worse, Orochimaru, contact Gai or myself. If we aren't close to you contact one of the other teams. I set your teams up so that each group will have a sensor of sorts. Neji, Sasuke, and Kimimaro. You are our sensors, besides myself and maybe Gai, you'll be the ones that will be able to locate nearby teams.

Also I'm going to summon my ninja hounds so that we can each track Sakura through the hideout just in case there are several leads, at least one of us should be able to find the right path. Any questions?"

We all remained quiet, and the tension was so thick you could practically touch it. Of course it would be that way, everyone knew the importance of this mission. If we failed, some of us could die and we might never see Sakura again.

"Alright since there are no questions… Summoning jutsu!" A big puff cloud appeared and where it cleared away, 5 ninja hounds stood. Each hound went to a different group, and Pakkun came with us.

"Alright guys let's move out!"

We ran for about 50 kilometers before coming to a stop in front of the entrance to Orochimaru's hideout. We quickly entered, and so far there was only the one hallway but it quickly split into a 5 way path and that's where we made a first stop. The ninja hounds sniffed around and all confirmed Sakura's scent was coming from each direction.

Lee made the first move and said, "Kimimaro and I will take the second hall."

Neji and Tenten had chosen the fourth hall, and Gai had chosen the fifth hall.

"Alright then I'll take the first hall then and Naruto and Sasuke you'll take the middle path. From here on the sensors of the group need to stay aware of where each group is. Unless we cross paths again we're on our own.

Before we go one more thing. Don't get yourselves killed."

At those words we all sped off in our chosen pathways, with one goal in mind: Sakura's retrieval. Naruto was quiet for awhile and then asked me a question, "Hey Sasuke?"

I looked at him and said, "What Naruto?"

He looked worried and asked, "Why do you think Orochimaru wanted Sakura? Do you think it's because of what she did during the second part of the chunin exams?"

I didn't answer at first. To be honest I had just been wondering that myself, and I still couldn't think of an answer. "Honestly Naruto, I'm not really sure. I've been thinking about it too but I'm just as confused as you are on this. Let's just focus on getting her back."

The rest of the time we remained silent, taking a few turns here and there. It was hard keeping track of the other teams but if I kept my Sharingan activated, it became a little bit easier on me. Kakashi was about 30 meters northwest of us, Gai 25 meters to the east of us, Lee and Kimimaro were 20 meters to the west of us and Neji and Tenten were just about 35 meters north of our group. So the groups closest to us were Gai, Lee and Kimimaro. All was quiet and then I heard something like a panting sound. I looked at Naruto and Pakkun, and although we were going full speed, the hound seemed ok, but Naruto…

"Stop guys."

They stopped abruptly and Naruto nearly tripped. He was sweating and the Naruto that I've known for this long would not be worn out already. I took a closer look at his chakra and what I saw freaked me out.

"Naruto we need to take a rest now. Your chakra… it's being drained and I think by these walls." I looked at myself and my chakra was doing the same but at a slower rate. I reached into my pouch and grabbed some food pills and tossed one to Pakkun and Naruto. We ate them and I could tell an immediate change in Naruto's chakra.

"Alright I'm going to contact the groups about this so hold on guys." I clicked the speaker on my communicator. "Everyone listen up. I don't know if you've noticed yet, but the walls in the tunnels are sucking away our chakra. You need to take a food pill if you have some handy."

Tenten chimed in saying, "Are you serious Sasuke?"

"Yes, I'm not sure how long each of us will last without food pills but I'm sure you can figure that one out Neji."

"Yeah just give me a sec." All was quiet and a minute later he said, "For Naruto and Kimimaro they'll only last an hour without. For some reason their chakra is being sucked up faster than ours. For Gai and Kakashi sensei, you should both last at least 2 hours. For the rest of us we'll last about an hour and a half."

Kakashi chimed in now, "Alright good work you two. Everyone should have some food pills in their bags, so when it comes time to refuel take one. We can't fight on low chakra, I'm sure I don't need to explain the risks. Understood?"

Everyone replied, "Yes!"

We continued onward after our brief rest. The tunnel seemed to be endless and we'd been running straight for 20 minutes now. We had just rounded a corner when two doors came into sight on either side of the walls. Naruto and I went to each door and opened them. They were empty bedrooms. We both looked inside, and in mine I saw a single candle and… a pink hair. On the bed there was a chain attached, and the sheets had been recently used.

"Naruto quick come here!" He ran over and I held up the pink hair and said, "Sakura was in this room. We're close." I walked to Pakkun and showed him the hair. "Maybe this could help pick up a stronger, more fresh scent." He sniffed her hair to re-recognize her scent and immediately started running in her direction.

"Are you sure this is the right path?"

Pakkun answered me, "Yes I'm sure. One of you contact the others and tell them that Sakura is about 100 meters ahead of us."

"Alright I'll do it. Come in everyone. We've located Sakura. Lee and Kimimaro, she's 50 meters east of you. Kakashi sensei, she's south of you by 30 meters, Neji and Tenten she's west of you by 30 meters and Gai sensei she is southwest of you by 35 meters."

Everyone gave the ok that they heard and we all headed towards Sakura's location. Within the next twenty minutes, we were outside a set of double doors. "Guys when you see a set of double doors, that's where you need to head inside. We're going to go inside, so for now we're checking out of our communicators."

We turned our volume down so that no one would compromise us by being too loud. We quietly entered the door and I looked round the room. It didn't look like there was anyone inside here, and I looked at the Pakkun, and he was walking slowly forward and he said, "Be careful guys. There's something not right about this room."

Right as he finished speaking the lights came on and a cage fell down from the ceiling. I was fast enough to avoid it but Naruto and Pakkun got trapped inside. I looked around for the person who released the trap and through a door on the other side walked in Kabuto. I was about to charge him but then I saw someone behind him.

It looked like a girl... She had long pink hair… I looked at Kabuto with what I'm sure looked like a mixture of horror and anger.

"Right on time Sasuke and friends. I thought since you came that I would bring you something as a surprise gift." He turned to the girl and said, "Sakura, would you please welcome our guests?"

She looked at Kabuto and said, "Yes sir…"

A black mark starting spreading across her body until her features changed. Her long pink hair became longer and turned purple. Her canines and nails grew to a sharp point, and 2 small horns started growing out of her forehead. That wasn't the last thing though, a pair of wings grew out from her back, same skin color as her, which was now gray, but they looked like bat wings.

Once her transformation stopped she jumped in the air and landed right in front of me. She met my eyes and I noticed her eyes had changed from green to a violent orange, and it shocked me more than any of her other changes because these eyes weren't her eyes. These eyes were lifeless and didn't know who I was at all.

"Sakura…"


End file.
